Yup I'm Going to Die
by CrzyMonkyFrk
Summary: Well my day is going great. I get fired from my job, some zombie creeps try to eat me, and a crazed biker gang is trying to kill me. Worst of all the only people I can trust now are three total strangers. Like I said my day is going great.
1. Chapter 1

**A/n: I posted this story awhile ago. I'm going back and fixing some stuff and re-posting it. Anyway here it is.**

The sun was smiling golden rays of light onto the earth. Birds were chirping and flying gracefully from tree to tree without a care in the world. Some kids were playing down the street laughing loudly as their ice cream cones melt making their hands slimy and sticky. An older couple was sitting on their front porch rocking peacefully back and forth enjoying the pre-sunset glow. Everything was perfect in Hardenville, Louisiana.

Well almost perfect anyway.

"JEN!" Tobey, my manager from hell howled from his office door. He had thinning black hair that was falling onto his face and the bald spot at the peak of his scalp was shining with sweat. "JENNIFER!"

Mumbling under my breath I sulk over to him as slowly as possible. I don't know why I took this stupid job in the first place. Oh yeah I forgot I was completely broke.

"Yes, Mr. Glassy." I droned speaking to this short, balding, fat man was probably the lowest thing I had on my to-do list.

He eyed me carefully for a moment, his thick foot tapping impatiently on the tile. He had to look up because I was actually quite taller than he was. It was pretty funny that he was trying to look meancing. He squinted his beady eyes and held up an assortment of clothes. "Did you put these on the clearance rack?" He asked between his teeth. It was more of an accusation than a question really.

"Um, no. Do you want me to?" I asked with fake cheeriness.

"A customer wanted to buy these at more than half price because she found them on the clearance rack. When she got to the register she saw what the real price was and threw a fit. Now we've lost a customer!" He threw the clothes down on the ground in a messy heap. "Somebody put those clothes there! And I want to know who!"

I almost started laughing, big freaking deal we lost one customer. The rest of the town depends on this store. But I decided maybe it was best not to agitate the situation by saying out loud what I was thinking. "Sir, I wasn't even working in the clothing department today. Ask Greg I think he was working there."

"I already asked Greg. He says you did it!"

"What?!" My temper flared. I should probably mention now that I really hated Greg. He is the laziess, most self-concerned jerk I have ever come across and it was even worse that he is so damn good looking. I should also mention Tobey is his father so he was also the golden boy around the store. "I swear I was with Kris in the garden section! Ask him!" I protested loudly waving my hands around for a more dramatic response. I lefted out they part about me and Kris taking naps on the soil bags.

"Oh no you're not going to bring a hard worker like Kris into you web of lies!" Tobey bellowed.

"What the hell are you talking about? Web of lies? I'm not lying to you! Greg is! You're just to fat and stupid to realize it!" Oops. Bad move Jen.

"Get out of my store!" Tobey screamed at the top of his lungs. Customers walked by hurriedly with their eyes down but I knew their ears straining to hear more. Small towns are like that. "You're fired! You hear me fired!"

"Fine I don't want to work for a fat stupid guy like you anyway. And you can't fire me because I quit!" I stormed towards the door but Greg aka golden boy cut me off. I stumbled to a stop and glared at him with clenched fists. "Get out of the way Greg."

"What the hell just happened? Did you get fired?" He asked concerned. "Was it about those clothes? I'm sorry about that, I needed you to take the blame on that one I'll talk to my dad say you just made an honest mistake."

I'm not sure if I broke his nose or not when I punched him but I heard a definite crunch and as I left the store my fist was covered with blood that wasn't my own. Smirking I climbed onto my bike because broke people like me can't afford a car much less the gas it takes to fill it up. If I had known what would have happened that night I might have taken a bus or called for a taxi but then again who knows where I would have turned up in the end.

All I know is, I never made it home that night.


	2. Chapter 2

"Stupid jerk…look at me I'm the best manager in the world…yeah right you fat son of a bi-" I muttered to myself as I peddled my way back to my apartment building. A car honked its horn at me and I rolled my eyes and kept on. Then another car honked followed by another one. Then a whole convoy of cars drove past me in a line. They had baggage strapped to the hoods of their cars.

What the hell was going on? I climbed off my bike and stood on the sidewalk looking around the street. No one was outside which was weird because in the summer everyone should have been out enjoying themselves. "Huh." I shrugged to myself and began to walk my bike back further into town.

Shuddering I thought of the movie I Am Legend and 28 Days Later. I heard a door slam in one of the houses that made me jump. It was a small community and I knew pretty much everyone so I walked over to the house and knocked on the door just to get some answers. "Hello? Where is everyone going?" I leaned to look into the window.

The door swung open and a man I recognized but couldn't remember his name stepped out with a 12 gauge shot gun pointed straight in my face. "Whoa!" I stumbled back with my hands up.

"Have you been bit?" He glared at me with so much intensity I don't think I could ever forget.

"B-Bit? I mean I have a few mosquito bites but they aren't that bad-" I answered still staring at his gun.

He interrupted me "That's not what I meant!"

I looked at him with a blank expression. "I don't get it then." Was the whole world going crazy? Or maybe it was just me going crazy.

"Never mind just get in the house." He reached down and dragged me up the porch steps and inside his living room.

"Hey! What are you doing? Let me go!" I howled in agony but it was too late I was thrown into the house and the door was slammed behind me. Shit, I had just been kidnapped!

"What's your name kid?" he asked as he dead bolted the door. I tried to crawl backwards away from him but he turned around and pointed the shot gun again. Why didn't I listen to my mom when she told me not to talk to strangers?

"J-Jennifer. People mostly call me Jen. What are you doing with that?" I asked eyeing his gun again.

"You don't pay attention to the news do you?" He now slung it over his right shoulder casually.

"Well I have been working all day. What is there like a hurricane or something coming?"

"A hurricane?" the man asked dumbfounded. "I ain't talking about no hurricane hun! It's been all over the news since two days ago!"

"I guess I just haven't had time to check the TV." I started to stand up because I looked incredibly stupid sitting on the floor. I lied. I don't even have a TV.

"Or read the newspaper I gather?"

"Yeah that too." Truth is they stopped sending me the newspaper a few months ago. "Are you going to tell me what's going on or what?"

The man who I had still to learn his name sighed heavily and walked around to the couch and picked up a remote. "Check for yourself." He looked at me with what appeared to be sadness in his eyes.

I hesitated and looked at him for moment before I sat down on the couch and took the remote from him. The first thing I saw was a white flash and heard someone screaming. Not just someone, a group of people screaming at the top of their lungs.

"We're here live at yet another outbreak!" The newswoman almost shouted into the camera, there was a dull moaning in the background. On the bottom of the screen it said she was in a town only five miles from Hardenville. "What is this?" I asked more to myself then the man in the room with me.

"Any reports on deaths Claire?" The anchorman back in the studio asked.

"None right now Don but with all this chaos I'm not surprised. People who might appear to be dead just get right back up again."

"And where are you at Claire? It looks like you are on a roof."

"Yes, Don we are on the roof of a local conivence store awaiting the News 5 helicopter to come pick us up. Now we are going to take the camera over the ledge so you and all the viewers can see what is going on here! The scene may be graphic so children may need to leave the room."

"Are you over 18?" The man sitting next to me grunted.

"Shh!" I hushed and waved my hands at him. I watched the camera wobble over to the edge. I don't know what I had been expecting to see but it was nothing like what I was about to be shown. The camera peered over the edge of the roof capturing several bleeding pale people clawing at the outside wall.

"What the hell!" I jumped off the couch with my hand over my mouth. One lady in particular had half of her face missing. Another man had no arms and was just head butting the wall. "What is wrong with them?!" I could feel my eyes water up and the vomit rising in my throat.

"Claire you said these types of attacks are happening everywhere?" Don the anchorman asked over the noise.

"Yes, they are able to multiply rapidly it seems the new theory is the disease transmits through saliva. And these 'zombies' as they are being called, do like to bite. The military is becoming over run and as of now all of the troops stationed in the Middle East are being immediately shipped back the states to help with this growing crisis."

The camera was still pointed down at the crowding mass of blood and flesh. "Well it's a good thing they can't climb stairs eh Claire?" The anchorman joked.

Claire flashed a perfect white smile "Right you are Don. Back to you in the studio."

"There are reports on other channels too saying that a group of those things were seen heading this direction and that everyone should lock up their houses and utilize any weapons. A lot of people have left town." The man spoke softly from behind me.

I was barely paying attention as he spoke. All I could do was look at the pictures the news station was now projecting. Children running around with bloodied faces roaring louder than any animal I had ever heard. Others were ambushing people, tearing their limbs off in a vicious feeding frenzy. "Oh, God." I whispered into my hands.

"Do you have family back at your place?" He asked glancing towards the door as if he was afraid a monster would break it open at any minute.

"N-No, my mom she lives in Texas. God I hope she's alright. I haven't heard from her in days." I stuttered and wiped my eyes. "You said they are coming this way? What are we going to do?"

"I'm hoping they'll just run right through town. Not even pay attention to what is here, but if not…" He held up the shot gun. "I know I'm going to fight them off at least."

I looked back to the TV but there was nothing there. The screen was black and it only showed my reflection on the glass. Then the rest of the power went out causing me to jump back up again. "Keep quiet; the city council probably did this so those things wouldn't notice. Stay calm it'll be alright."

Was this man crazy? It'll be alright?! I'm still technically a young adult but that doesn't make me stupid I saw those things on TV and if they were walking around the street in front of this house everything was almost certainly NOT alright.

"Okay." I gulped anyway. I was rooted to my spot while he went to check the window.

"I don't see anything…yet." He confirmed peering through the dirty blinds. I let out a sigh of relief and sat back down on the couch.

"Wait a minute someone is out there."

I jumped back up again and walked over to the window. "Is it one of them?" Man I've never heard my voice shake that much in my life. It was scary.

"I can't tell. Looks like Freddy."

Freddy was an older gentlemen who lived by himself on the outskirts of town. I had never really gotten to know him personally but he was always friendly with me when he came to the store and he cared a lot about the community.

"I'll go check."

"NO!" I shouted as he reached for the door handled. "You can't open the door! What if something gets in?" I whispered the last part.

"Oh so I'm just suppose to let Fred get killed out there? I don't think so little missy."

I instantly regretted what I had said. I didn't want old man Fred to die, but I didn't want me to die even more and that ugly truth disgusted me. I didn't say anything else as the man open his front door and called out "Hey Fred! Haven't you heard the news? They're coming this way! Come get in the house!"

I looked back out the window and watched Fred just stood there looking dumb. "I think something is wrong with him." I whispered taking a step back from the window. "You should probably shut the door now."

"Hey Fred! Over here!" The man took a step outside the house.

From the open door I saw Fred turn his head slowly. For a split second I thought I was seeing things, but no Fred's cheek and eye were dangling from his head and a huge portion of his shoulder was missing leaving only a crater of blood and tissue. He moaned and stumbled forward while I shrieked and stumbled back.

The man quickly jumped back inside and shut the door. "Shit!" He shouted. "I gave away our position!" I was too afraid to answer back with an 'I told you so' comment. I was also too afraid to look back out the window. The picture of that eyeball dangling inside the hole where Fred's cheek should have been made me want to throw up.

A few seconds later there was a thud on the door. "That's him." I whispered feeling behind me for the wall.

"Listen, Jen, I need you to open the door alright?"

"Are you INSANE!" I shouted. "I'm not opening that door!"

"Just open the door and get out of the way; it's only one so a shot with this should do it." He indicated to his gun once again. "We need to get rid of him before others come and catch on."

"And if it doesn't? What if he gets back up again like they said on TV?" I asked terrified.

"Hell kid we'll both die now suck it up and grow some balls!"

I stared at him. "Um, that would be biologically impossi-" I was just stalling then.

"Just open the damn door!"

I stood up on shakily legs and walked slowly over to the door. Another loud thump made me jump back. I looked at the man who just ushered me forward again. "Do it kid before more show up."

I grasped the door handle firmly and he raised the shot gun. "Get out of the way as fast as you can." He warned.

I nodded and pulled the door open then I crouched down between the open door and the wall and covered my ears. But I still heard the loud bang and every drop of blood that splattered against the walls and door. This time I did throw up. The man pushed the door closed on the dead monster and bent down to look at me. "Did you get hit?"

I just threw up again until I was sitting in a pool of my own vomit. Blood was everywhere included on the man. Pieces of Fred's skin were hanging from his hair. I started to dry heave when there was nothing left to throw up.

"Is-Is it dead?" I asked trying to stand up but my legs wouldn't hold me up. I wiped the tears out of my eyes roughly but they were soon replaced by more.

"You don't hear it banging no more do you?" He pulled me up in his arms and helped me over to the couch. "You sure you're alright kid?"

"Yeah, I think so…just sick." My eyes were watering and clouding my vision. "Did you see anymore out there?"

"No but then again I wasn't really paying attention to anything other than that one." I groaned as he walked back over to the window. "They have to be near if they got Fred."

"Why don't we just go on the roof and wait for help like that lady did on the news?" I offered.

"Do you think they give a rat's ass about anyone in places like this when they have people like the president to take care of? Government could care less about people like us they ain't going to do shit."

"Well, we can't stay here forever! One has already found us and what happens when more show up? How many are you going to be able to shoot before you run out of ammo or they swamp you like they were doing to the convience store?"

There was another loud noise at the door. "I guess they know we're in here." He flinched back at the bangs. "Let's just wait it out…they might lose interest once they find they can't get in."

It was well into the night and the banging only seemed to get louder with every passing second. I sat huddled in the opposite corner trying to keep both eyes on the door and sleep at the same time, at this I was failing miserably. The man sat at the window religiously updating me regularly, "Two more coming up the steps." Or "This one is leaving." Each time I begged him to get away from the window before one happened to see the subtly movement of the disrupted blinds. It was a lot easier to crash through a window then it was a door. He really should have covered the window.

"Damn there are a lot of them out there." He said to himself but out loud at the same time. He walked over and pushed the couch up against the wooden door so now the eradicated thumping was muffled. I wanted to get up and help or at least do something but my legs felt like lead and my head was pounding to the beat of the rotten hands outside on the door.

Oh God I'm going to die in a stranger's house. I wondered if my mom tried to call me, I wondered if my mom was still even alive. I wiped my tears away quickly. The smell of vomit, dried blood, and decaying flesh had caused me to lose any sense of smell.

"Shit, it looks like they got into another house across the street." The man said again.

I swallowed hard and put my head down onto my folded arms. That was the third one in the last thirty minutes he had seen and reported to me. Who knows how many other houses were lost that we couldn't see? Somehow those things were finding a way to get in places. This indicated to me at least, that it was only a matter of time until one of them found a way in here.

"You stay here I'm going to check the back door." He left the room quickly and I turned to face the window. The street light outside cast a shadow through the blinds. A man-like shadow of a head and shoulders appeared in front of it.

"Hey Mr..." I called weakly but my voice came out in a barely audible high pitched squeak. The thing outside stood swaying back and forth and I shuttered again thinking of some monster with one eye and one arm peering in at me. "Hey!" I called again louder my voice cracked.

"What is it?" The man came back into the room looking slightly annoyed. "Oh shit!" He shouted when he happened to catch the dark silhouette standing at the window.

"What if he smashes it?" I ask glancing back and forth between the man and the shadow. He didn't say anything just stared out with a look of determination set on his face. "Should we cover the window?" I asked.

"No then he will defiantly see us and well defiantly start banging on the glass." The man sighed. "They are at the back door too."

"So we're completely surrounded? How the hell are we supposed to get out?"

"Kid you have got to stop asking all these questions. Down stairs in the basement there is a door going out to the side of the house. If anything should happen that is our best bet."

Sure, it was easy for him to stay calm. He had a gun I didn't have anything that kept me away from those hungry hands and mouths. Meanwhile the shadow just stood there absently. "What is it doing out there?" I asked myself a hundred times over in my head.

Another shadow joined the first one behind the blinds. "You reckon they're catching on?" he asked me but when the figure's hand press lighting on the glass it answered long before I could.

"I think it's time we use that side door now…" I whispered. I was suddenly and miraculously able to stand on my own again.

"There could be more there I haven't checked that door yet." He gripped the gun until his knuckles were white. Another hand was placed on the window followed by another and another. The window pane was already starting to groan.

"We are so fucked." I said taking a step back towards the doorway I only assume lead to the basement.

"Not yet we aren't. They are just putting their hands on it. Puttin' your hands on no window ever broke it." He shot back at me. Just then an inverted fist plowed into the glass not quite breaking through but making an impressive splintering crack. I covered my ears and shouted. "Okay now we are fucked!"

He ran over to the window just as another fist shattered the lower half of the window. The hand managed to grasp a hold the man's pant leg. He shifted his body so the hand became impaled on a sharp piece of glass still stuck in the window sill. Blood squirted onto his face but he managed to cover the window with a large bookcase without any assistance from me.

"How long that ought to hold them?" The bookcase shook dangerously.

"Get behind me kid." He ordered as he rose up the 12 guage as the bookcase toppled over one of the things had gotten all the way into the house and was lying on the fallen books. It managed to stand but the man's gun put it down again. There was the one that had tried to grab the man through the window growling angrily his hand still stuck in the window but the gun silenced him as well. The zombies had all abandoned the door and were now trying to clamor through the window cutting off their fingers on the broken glass as they went. The man kept shooting until there was a mountain of bloody bags of spoiled human life but more continued to pour in.

"You go ahead I'll hold them off!" He shouted at me.

I hesitated. I'm not going out there when I could stay here with the guy with the gun.

"GO!"He barked and I flew down the stairs. When I reached the bottom I turned almost expecting him to be following me down. He didn't have time to reload so he was swinging the shotgun at them as they closed in. They were on him in seconds and he collapsed into their arms. Blood and tissue flew up into the air as they mauled him like animals. The gun flew about half-way down the stairs.

If I had been thinking straight I would have tried for it but I wasn't thinking and the high pitched shrieks of the one man who had helped made want to crawl into a pit of unimaginable darkness. There was no way this was happening.

So I did what most people do when they are scared. I ran. I sprinted for that door jumping over anything that stood in my path. The door was blocked with cardboard boxes I climbed and pushed my way through them never skipping a beat. Something sharp caught my leg but that didn't slow me down at all. I just had to get out of that house.

The fact that I had just seen a man get eaten alive hadn't even registered with me at that point. It was just about my survival. I was on the street in a matter of seconds. Those things saw me and stumbled stupidly after me, about ten of them, but I was running to hard and too fast for them to even come close. I knew the longer and faster I ran the further away from them I'd be.

And as I ran past the city limits sign I started to cry uncontrollably. That man back there had just saved my life, and I didn't even know his name.


	3. Chapter 3

I didn't stop running until morning. I didn't know how long I had ran or how far I had gotten but it seemed like hours.

HA! And my old highschool track coach had said I would never amount to anything! My stomach lurched. My track coach was probably dead too. Everyone was probably dead. My family, my friends, I mean I didn't have any friends but if I did they would all be dead as well.

On the bright side, that also meant that Tobey was dead too. I pictured Tobey as a zombie who had fallen on the ground and couldn't get up. I chuckled to myself and continued to walk down the deserted highway. The sun was barely above the horizon and already I knew it was going to be a hot day.

Groaning I trudged along hoping to find a city full of protection but at the same time I knew the closer I was to a city the closer I was to another possible outbreak and even more zombies.

On a different bright side at least they couldn't seem to run or even walk that fast for that matter. I just have to avoid being swamped by a bunch of them or cornered, and I could out run them no problem.

About midday I had gone a few more miles without seeing anything except dried yellow grass and cracked pavement. Vultures were circling over my head lazily. I tore my off my pant legs to make them into kahki shorts and wraped my shirt around my head like a turban. I'm pretty sure I looked like a complete moron in my crude shorts and v-neck. "I'm not going to die! Stop wasting your time!" I shouted at the dumb birds occasionaly kicking the dirt as I moved on.

Great I'm talking to was a blue car up ahead parked on the side of the road. Great now I'm hallucinating.

But as I got closer I saw that it was really there. I gripped my way to the driver's side as I suddenly realized just how tired I had been. A man was sitting inside in the driver's seat growling and hissing. When he saw me approach he clashed his teeth together and clawed at the window with more urgentcecy. I saw there was a huge gash in his neck where he had been bit by something.

"Give me a break for once!" I shouted up into the air at no one. Maybe I was talking to God but at that point I was starting to loose faith in the guy. I almost kept walking up the road to just leave the thing there to rot away in the car but I was really hot and I was really tired of walking and I'd be damned if some stupid zombie would stand in my way of working air conditioning.

So I set my plan into action. It wasn't much of a plan really. All I did was open the driver door to release the zombie then I ran about twenty feet back before it could grab at me. When I opened said door the dumb thing fell flat onto it's face in the dirt. I almost started to laugh but then I remebered this thing was trying to kill me.

He pulled himself up and moaned. I started to cross to the over side of the car. These things walk like toddlers, always wobbling from side to side kind of like they were unsure if their foot would hit solid ground. It was very easy, I just darted around to the passengar side of the car and climbed in. Then I reached over the sterring wheel to close the door before ugly barely even turned around.

I climbed into the driver's seat and laughed at the zombie who was snarling at me. I started the ignition, then sped off before it even had reached the window. It was very liberating to steal a car from a dead guy. I was quite proud of myself. I had outsmarted something that couldn't even figure out how to open a car door but hey at least I did something. And best of all I was still alive! Yay!

And to my luck the gas tank was full! Maybe this God guy was really looking out for me. To bad I can't say the same thing about a lot of other people. As I drove I tried to pick up a radio station so I could know what was going on in other places but all I got was static and a classical music station.

Yes because the world is ending but nobody worry you can still listen to Beetoven's fifth!

I saw a sign saying 'Lauflan 10 miles' and pulled over in front of it. Should I go into town and try to find some help? Or should I find another way and go around? I thought about the guy who pulled me off the streets last night. If it wasn't for him I'd not even be here. Perhaps someone in Lauflan needed my help too. Who was I to deny them? And maybe everyone there was okay, maybe it would be safe there.

I took a deep breath and pulled back onto the street. I guess I'm going to Lauflan.

Driving into town I didn't see anything like what I had seen in Hardenville. Meaning that I didn't see anything at all except a lot of lonely streets and empty buildings. Some jarred doors were opening and closing in the wind. Furniture and clothes littered the streets. I made sure the coast was clear before pulling over and parking and opening the car door. Even when I stepped outside I made sure the door remained wide open with my foot in at all time in case I needed to get out of there quickly.

Dirty newspapers flooded the streets. I crouched down to pick one up a read the headline "Mutant Beings Take Over the Country!" I threw the paper down in disgust. I had hoped the epidemic hadn't reached everywhere yet.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted. "Is anybody out there!?" my voice echoed back to me. "Hello?!" I shouted some more and pressed down on the car's horn a few times. No one answered back and I was crestfalled. Maybe I was too late. But I saw no blood or zombies so maybe everyone got out in time. The thought that there was a complete society of survivors somewhere caused my heart to jump into my throat.

All these people had to be going somewhere. I got back in the car and stopped at a gas station. While the car was filling up I decided it was safe enough to run in and get something to eat. The store was totally abandoned. I was able to stock up on plenty of Gatorade and assorted snacks and junk food. I threw the food into the open passengar window then went to pull the gas nozzle out of the car and put it back up. I had felt the growing sensation that someone was watching me.

I looked around quickly and jumped into the car and locked the doors and rolled the windows up slowly. Then I just sat there with this growing creepy feeling. That's when I saw him, a boy was peering over the roof of the store. When he caught me looking at him he ducked back out of sight.

I stepped out of my car to get a better look. "Hey is someone up there?" I called. Once again no answer. "Okay I know you're up there because I saw you. Do you need help?" I had to cut to the chase.

The boy poked his head out again. "Who are you?" he called back.

"I'm a survivor I'm from Hardenville. My name's Jennifer."

"Are you one of them?" The boy's brown hair kept falling into his eyes.

"No I'm not a zombie. And no I was never bit. Can you tell me what happened here? Where is everyone?"

"They came and took everyone this morning."

"Who is they? The zombies?" I asked.

"No they were on motorcycles and they loaded everyone up in their trucks and drove off." The boy stood up. He had a boyish face but his body suggested he was closer to my age. "Is that your car?" he added.

"Y-yeah, well it's not really mine. I'm kind of borrowing it for the moment. There was this zombie-well it's a long story." I answered stumbling over my words.

"Mind if I come with you? I got nowhere else to go." He asked unable to say anything I shrugged. He nodded and dissappeared from view. Seconds later he was walking towards the car with his hand outstreched.

"Hi, My name is Devin." He introduced as I shook his hand.

"Jennifer." I replied as calmly as I could.

"I know you told me a few minutes ago. Mind if I call you Jen?" I nodded like a child but he just smiled at me. "If you want I can drive…" Devin added breaking the silence.

"Oh, um. Sure I guess." I handed him the keys.

"Alright thanks!" He answered happily. As I walked over to the passenger side I cursed my social skills or lack there of.

"So where are you headed?" he asked pulling out of the station.

"Well," I answered. "I was thinking about going into Texas."

"Is that where you're from? Texas?" he asked again once we were back on the highway. I nodded silently.

We drove a couple of miles in silence until I worked up the courage to ask him some questions. "You said some people came and took everybody?" Devin glanced sideways at me and seemed lost in thought for a moment. At first I didn't think he was going to answer.

"When news of the outbreak spread, a lot of gangs started to pop up. I saw it on the news. They were taking anything of value including human life."

"And they just came in and took everybody?" I asked stunned.

"People were scared. They all thought those monster things were coming and suddenly here are these guys who are promising to take them to a safe place. And the stupid idiots followed them. God knows where they are now." He finished.

"But you didn't go with them." I pointed out the obvious on that one I know, but I wanted to keep up the conversation so I wouldn't sink back into my dark thoughts.

"One of the guys looked familiar, he was on one of the news segments I saw I think he was the leader or something. I just knew I wanted to stay away from him."

Damn it God just when I start to think this isn't so bad you have to throw me a curve ball. And I don't even like baseball!

"That sucks." I said turning around to make sure no one was following us.

"Yeah so I'm going to find them and make them pay!" Devin answered sharply slamming his fists onto the steering wheel.

"What?!" His sudden outburst made me jump. "Maybe you don't understand Devin, but I am leaning towards the 'Get To Live' side of things and nothing on that side says anything about going _towards_ the guys trying to kill us!" I protested back.

"Look I'm sorry to drag you into this but they have my friends and you had the car!"

"Your friends?!" I scoffed. "A moment ago you were calling them 'stupid little lambs'! Now get out of my car!"

"I can't! I'm driving."

"Well then pull over!" I growled at him.

There was a load roar of engines behind us. I saw in the mirrors two motorcyclists closing in on us. "Oh shit! Don't pull over! Don't pull over!" I corrected myself.

Why is it that in the past two days everytime I've been in trouble a good looking boy was behind it. "Oh shit we're going to die!" I screamed when one of them caught up to us and was driving parallel to the car on my side. His face was peering into the window at me. "We are so dead." I whispered again.

"No we're not!" Devin answered through his teeth. He suddenly jerked the stering wheel to the right slamming into the motorcycle and knocking the gang member off onto the road. I saw his head hit the pavement almost in slow motion, it popped like a zit spewing blood and brains everywhere. "Holy shit!" I screamed.

"Always wear a helmet kids!" Devin laughed like a maniac. Of all the guys to get stuck with I get the one using corny catch phrases.

Devin then slammed on the brakes and jerked the steering wheel again causing the car to swing around to a stop leaving the two of us and the car perpendicular to the oncomming motorist. The man didn't have time to stop and he crashed hard into the backend of the car.

He flew over the trunk of the car and bounced nearly ten feet away. "Holy crap that was insane!" Deving shouted and jumped out of the car with a giant smile on his face.

"Insane?!" I got out of the car too and slammed the door shut with all my strength. "You just killed two people!"

"So what? They would have killed us if they had the chance." Devin shrugged me off and walked to the back of the car.

This was true, they would have killed us, but I was still pissed off and terrified. "Where are we going to put these bodies? And their motorcycles? What happens if their friends come looking for them?" I asked all these questions.

Devin smiled and popped the trunk.

"Oh no." But I quickly learned never to say no to Devin.


	4. Chapter 4

Devin grunted as he dragged the first body over to the car. The torn lump of muscle and flesh left a trail of blood behind and Devin's pants were coated with the sticky red ooze.

"What the hell." He mummered, shrugged and started to unzip his fly.

"Sick!" I shouted turning around and closed my eyes. "Put your pants back on!"

"Chill out it's okay." Devin assured "I'm dressed now." I turned back to face him and what I saw disgusted me even more. "Oh my God"

"What?"

"Devin take those off right now!"

"Why? He's not going to use them." Devin was now wearing the biker's torn jeans.

"That's gross you are wearing clothes a guy died in!" Actually this was probably the least grossiest thing I've seen since yesterday.

"He hasn't been dead that long. Besides you're going to have to wear the other guy's stuff too." He told me throwing on the dead guy's leather jacket casually.

"I'm not wearing anything!" I shouted. Well that came out wrong. Anyway the point I was trying so hard to make here is that Devin is a lunatic who enjoys killing people so that he can then wear their clothing.

"If you don't they'll kidnap you too. We need them for disguises." Devin said again.

"We?! There is no we Devin! If you want to go be a hero you can go but like I said before I want to live!" I screamed at him from the middle of the road. I turned my back and crossed my arms firmly over my chest.

"You bitch!"

"What did you just call me?!" I shouted wheeling around to face him. But Devin shrugged. "I didn't say anything." I turned slowly to see the other biker crawling towards me on his elbows, his legs were twisted at opposite angles with the bones sticking out visably. I ran back to hide behind Devin, completely forgetting that we had been fighting.

This guy was ugly. He had a face that reminded me of a pig with his squashed up nose and squinty eyes. Or maybe it was just the accident that did that. "You little bitch! You killed Charlie!" the ugly man shouted again. He seemed in to much pain to go any futher and just floundered on the pavement.

"Devin I thought you killed him." I whispered nervously in his ear.

"I thought I did too!" Deving walked over to the man and looked down on him. Ugly looked up at him with pure hatred in his eyes. I watched nervously from a distance. "You going to kill me too?" the man half-mocked.

"Where did you take the people from Lauflan?" Devin's tone was evenly serious. The gang member laughed loudly. "Answer the question!" Devin screamed over the laughter.

I watched the whole scene play out in the middle of nowhere on an empty road. "We're set up not even two miles down the road! You are driving right into a trap! And when they come looking for the two men they sent out a couple hours ago you are both going to be caught and punished just like your dumbass friends from town!" the man sneered.

Without another word Devin began kicking and stomping on the man's head and face making sick squishing sounds until his face was no longer visable under all the blood and his body stopped thrashing. Devin walked back over to where I with a blood soaked face. I stood with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Y-You just – You just killed him! AGAIN!" I stumbled still trying to process that my companion was now a homicidle lunatic who like to kill people, wear their clothing, and now I find, very fond of face kicking."

"He deserved it! You heard what he said!"

I guess I didn't look convinced. "Listen, I'm sorry about before. You don't have to come with me. I'll chuck the bodies in a ditch somewhere and you can take the car and turn back around."

Wow the homicidle lunatic is going to let me go. I'm touched. I would have left right then and there. Hell I should have left I'd probably been better off. But something deep down underneath multiple layers of fear was telling me to put on dead guy clothes and ride off into the sunset with the lunatic.

Afterall at least the lunatic was on my side right?

I found out that day I look incredibly stupid in biker garb. The pants were to big and sagged below my hips and the jacket covered up my hands. Plus blood was all over everything. I walked to the side of the road to commence vomitting at one point.

"Hey wear this." Devin tossed a black bandana with white skulls on it to me. "Put your hair up in it. I don't want them to know you're a girl."

I started to tuck my hair underneath carefully. Then he came over and smeared dirt onto my face to 'make it look genuine'

"Why don't you want them to know if I'm a girl?" I asked as he caked on the dirt.

"I donno, it just seems like they'd hurt a girl more if you know what I mean." He answered. I swallowed gently.

"Don't they have girls in their gangs?"

"I saw a couple of women with them but you'd never fit in. You're to pretty." The compliment caught me off guard and I began to blush through the dirt luckily Devin didn't notice.

"Do you know how to ride?" he asked gesturing to the motocycle.

"No but how hard could it be?" I shrugged.

Well it turns out that riding a motorcycle is a lot harder then it looks. After a dozen failed attempts I found myself sitting behind Devin on his. That was the most awkward ten minutes of my life.

Then we saw it. Random camping tents surrounded in a cloud of exhaust and big hairy men laughing at each other cruelly.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked but Devin already began parking the bike.

"Hey what happened to your bike?" You look like a little girly girl riding on the back!" One of the men roared in laughter in my direction.

I laughed it off nervously in the deepest voice I could. "You two scouts!" Someone shouted at us. Devin and I turned around quickly. "You're both to report to Gage." The man ordering us pointed to the biggest tent in the area.

"Yes sir." Devin grunted. Man was he a good actor alright. "Don't say anything." Devin warned me outside the tent. "Just let me do all the talking."

I didn't bother telling him that I wasn't planning on saying anything in the first place.

"Enter." A voice boomed from inside. Inside the tent there were pillows all over the floor. There were some women sitting against the walls and some men were drinking in a corner happily.

"The scouts have returned Gage." The man who said this was huge. A gleaming tower of pure muscle and endurance. His black head was shaven bald.

"Ah yes." The second man appeared. He was huge too but in the opposite way. His rolls of fat bulged out of his clothing and his hair was longer than mine, greasy, and matted. I hadn't showered today I wondered if I looked like that. I probably did. The man snapped me out of my thoughts. "What is your report?" He asked.

There was a sudden silence in the room as the man called Gage stared at us expectantly. "Er, we found no one. No zombies either. Plenty of food out there." Devin answered finally. Gage smiled displaying his yellowing teeth.

"Excellent! Ruff send out a group to retrive food and gas."

The huge black man nodded his head. "Would you mind if I spoke some more to these scouts?" He asked.

"Do what you wish, but for now everyone leave me." Gage ordered.

The drunken men stood and stumbled out in front of us as did the Ruff fellow. As Devin and I filed out I heard Gage say "No you stay." And I realized he was talking to the group of girls.


	5. Chapter 5

Ruff was waiting for us outside the tent with his arms folded across his chest. "Follow me." He spoke softly with a deep voice. As we walked behind him I noticed his left hand was missing. He led us to a tent. It was a lot simpler than the previous one we were in. Judging by its décor I assumed it was his private tent.

He turned on us immediately. "Where are the real scouts? What did you do with them?" Oh crap he knows, I thought. I knew this was a bad idea.

"We don't know what you're talking about. We are the scouts." Devin declared defiantly.

"Don't be a smartass boy. I know who Gage sent and it wasn't you two!" The man towered over him. Nice try Devin.

"What are you going to do to us?" I asked realizing that we had been caught red-handed.

"I'm not going to do anything." Ruff answered.

"Wait, why not?" Devin asked skeptically. Who cares Devin just shut up!

"Because I want to get out of this hell hole just as bad as you." Ruff replied cooly.

Well there's a shocker, but also a huge relief.

"Good then you can help us free the prisoners your bunch took." Devin pointed out.

"Don't call them 'my bunch'! I don't want to be associated with them."

"Well you kind of work for that head guy." Devin argued. Clearly he did not trust Ruff. I on the other hand was like a cheerleader for the guy.

"It was either that or die!" Ruff shouted back.

I tried to calm Devin down. Because let's face it, even if Ruff didn't have a left hand and even if he was crippled like that other guy Devin killed he still wouldn't be able to kick him in the face without dying first.

"Okay just show me where they are keeping everybody and I'll do everything myself." Devin threatened.

Ruff sighed loudly. "I'll help you. But I'm not promising anything you hear?"

Great! Let's go!" Devin moved to leave the tent but Ruff caught his arm. "No let's wait until dark. Gage is having a ceremony we can slip out through the commotion."

"I agree with his plan!" I sang out before Devin could object. Sulking because he was out voted he went into a corner of the tent and ignored us the rest of the day.

I sat down on the floor and looked around. "You're a girl aren't you?" Ruff asked sitting down beside me.

"How could you tell?" I asked shooting my hands up to my head making sure my hair wasn't falling out.

"I'm smarter than I look I guess." With that he glanced at Devin. "Are you with him?" I started to laugh, "No we just met today actually."

"Well you just mark my words. Someday you two are going to wind up together." I was so glad Devin had not been paying attention. Me hook up with the lunatic? No I don't think so.

After awhile I got to staring at his missing hand. "How'd you lose your hand?" I asked rather bluntly but I really wanted to know.

"Zombie bit into it. So I cut it off."

"You cut off your own hand?!" I was shocked. "Didn't that hurt?"

"Of course it hurt!" Ruff looked at me like I was crazy for asking that. I probably was. "Even I didn't think it would bleed that bad. But it beats dying. Anyway it's okay because I was always a righty." He waved his functioning hand at me with a grin.

I wish I could've been as cool as Ruff but knowing me, if I tried to cut off my hand I'd end up puking over the stub and then I'd probably faint at the sight of my blood pouring out everywhere, and I would eventually die from blood loss if the shock hadn't killed me first. So I think it's safe to say I would never cut off my own hand. Good to know.

I spent the next hour talking with Ruff and I found out that his real name was Rudolph and he came from Virginia a few weeks ago. He wasn't married to anyone or had any kids that he knew of.

"Jen, I'm awfully sorry someone like you had to get involved with this." He said to me at one point. "He deserves it though." He finished clearly meaning Devin. This cause me to giggle and Devin went back to brooding. I told him that I wanted to go to Texas and his response shocked me. "When we get out of here I'll help you get to Texas."

"Wait are you serious?" I asked looking at him with my full attention now. "Of course. Besides I don't want you to be alone with this boy anymore." I started to laugh again.

"Can we please just go now?" Devin asked clearly becoming agitated.

"Settle down son, you'll know when it's time." By that time the sun was dipping away for the night. I was falling asleep against Ruff who was watching me like a hawk. Just as I began my descent into a deep lingering sleep Ruff shook me awake again. "Time to go."

Devin was already peering out of the tent flap. We climbed out together and watched as most of the gang gathered around a huge bonfire. "They use that to lure people in. I think it'll just attract zombies or other gangs." Ruff looked at Devin and said, "There is a tent behind Gage's where some of the prisoners are. There are a few other prisoner tents but I don't know which ones they are." Devin nodded in understanding and ran off into the shadows.

"And you can come with me." I followed Ruff to the staggered line of motorcycles. He handed me a small pocket knife. "We're going to cut their gas lines so they won't be able to follow us." Ruff went up to the first bike and began to cut some wires.

I just stood there in the orange glow of the fire holding the pocket knife and thinking 'which one is the gas line?'

"Hey what do you think you're doing?" Someone called to me.

I dropped my knife, well actually Ruff's knife, in the dirt. "I'm uh-cleaning my bike?" It came out more like a question than a statement. The man didn't notice.

"Well you can do that later man! Gage is getting to the best part!" The gang member started pulling me to the edge of the circle.

"And now my humble servants! Behold! The secret of immunity!" Everyone roared in approval, everyone except my anyway. I pushed my way to the front so I could see what was going on. Gage was circling the fire and tied to a wooden post in the ground was a zombie woman growling and snapping her teeth together pulling at the rope trying desperatly to reach out and grab someone. She must have been bit in the mouth because she had no lips at all. Gage made a signal with his hand and the zombie was shot in the head by another man.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! You have no reason to fear the undead anymore!" And with that Gage pulled out a knife of his own and began cutting into the crumpled body. I watched in utter shock and repulsiveness as Gage lifted his knife to his mouth began to lick the blood covering it until the knife was clean again. Everyone cheered and jumped around.

While I tried to make my way out of the mosh pit of celebration I resisted the urge to throw up. I don't know if drinking zombie blood turns you into one just like if they bite you but I wasn't sticking around to find out. When I got back into the shadows away from the screaming crowd somebody knocked me over. Before I even knew what was going on, hands were circling my throat and I couldn't breathe. Well, goodbye world...

"No! She's on our side!" The hands released and I was pulled to my feet. I coughed and rubbed my chaffed throat.

"You alright Jen?" Thank God it was Devin. Whoa I used God and Devin in the same sentence without a curse word being involved. Devin was barley visible in the dark but I could make out the figures standing around him.

"So is this all of them?" I asked still rubbing my neck.

"No we found the trucks the rest are loaded up and ready to go. We all just wanted to see what was going on here."

"Trust me you don't want to know." I said with fresh images of Gage licking his knife like a little kid licks the spoon after baking a cake replaying in my head. "Ruff cut the gas line too so we should go now before they notice."

"Oh. Okay." Devin answered curtly. I could tell he was angry Ruff had thought of something he hadn't.

Well at least Devin could hold his own, I thought when I saw the townspeople crammed into the trucks, they were all full except for one and Ruff was leaning against the hood of that one.

"Well Devin I guess this is goodbye." I turned to him and held out my hand.

"What do you mean?" he asked stunned.

"I'm going to Texas with Ruff."

"No I thought you were coming with us!" Devin announced.

"Where are you going?" I wanted to know.

"We're going to find an outpost where it'll be safe! Come with us!" Devin was irritating me. I mean I tagged along with his dumb little rescue mission, even though I really didn't do anything, at least I came and supported him.

"Devin I'm going to Texas to find my mom. Goodbye." I ran off to Ruff feeling like one of those girls in high school who are real bitchy and make your life hell all the time for leaving him there.

"See? You're already fighting like a married couple." Ruff grunted as he slid off the hood.

"Shut up we're never going to see each other again anyway." I answered back climbing into the passenger's side slightly crestfallen.

"I wouldn't bet on that." Ruff laughed.

"Ruff you can drive with only one hand right?" I asked staring at his stump.

"Donno, never tried before."

Someone banged on my window and I jumped so high my head it the roof of the truck. "I'm coming with you all!" Devin shouted. "Let me in!"

Ruff unlocked the door and Devin jumped into the back seat.

"So why are you wanting to come?" I asked cheerfully.

"Not sure." Devin shrugged. "I just always wanted to go to Texas." Well it finally happened. The lunatic had grown on me. I just barely heard a gang member shout "The prisoners are free!" over the trucks' engines and then we were free.


	6. Chapter 6

"How far is Texas you reckon?" Devin asked. "I want to say 'Howdy Ya'll!' to all the Texan zombies. " He he had started to get on my nerves again.

"Stop talking like that." I grumbled a few hours after sunrise. I had a little sleep but not nearly enough and Devin was not helping my situation.

"I'm just practicing for when we get to Texas!" Devin went back to saying the word 'howdy' over and over again like a moron. "Nobody in Texas even talks like that so shut up!" I screamed at him turning around in my seat next to Ruff.

Ruff was smiling the whole time but when Devin ignored me and started back up again, well let's just say Ruff had sternly suggested that he stopped. And Devin did.

"Hey what's that?" Devin lunged from the back and pointed out the windshield after a long moment of much needed silence. It looked like a young girl standing on the side of the road with her arms stretched out to the sky.

"It's probably a zombie keep going." I urged.

"At least slow down and make sure." Devin said pulling on Ruff's shoulders. When we pulled up beside the girl she had her eyes closed. She didn't have any blood on her. "Hey are you alright?" Devin asked rolling down his window in the back.

"Go away." The girl said not even opening her eyes.

"Um…you do know that you could get killed out here standing like this right?" Devin asked again.

"I'm immortal." The girl replied calmly.

I looked at Ruff with raised eyebrows. "Little girl just get in the truck." I ordered. "Before those monsters show up."

"God does not fear them." Was her answer.

"Well God isn't here right now so get in the damn truck!" I said again growing impatient.

"God is standing before you right now." She opened her eyes and looked at me. Her blonde hair and bright blue eyes did remind me of an angel. "I am God."

We all looked at each other. It was obvious this girl was a nut job. "You think you're God?" I asked loudly.

"No. I know I am God." There girl's tone was starting to freak me out. I've never heard anyone sound that sure of themselves.

"Dude you're like thirteen!" Devin shouted.

"I am twelve. And age doesn't have anything to do with it."

"Get in the truck." Ruff said suddenly. "I don't care if you're Jesus H. Christ."

The girl quickly climbed in next to Devin. Damn how the hell does he do that? I'm going to get Ruff to teach me how to make people do what I want whenever I want. I'm going to be just like Ruff minus the huge muscles and the only one hand thing.

"What's your name?" I turned around to face the back seat and studied the girl. I was secretly relieved that I was no longer the only girl on this little adventure.

"I already told you my name. God."

" girl you are not God. You're just a little girl." I pointed out. Ruff jabbed me in the ribs. "Ow! What was that for?" I asked outraged.

"Shut up she has probably witnessed a tragic event or something and is trying to comfort herself by saying she is God. Let her think what she wants." Ruff whispered pulling back onto the road. Big deal I had witnessed some pretty tragic stuff in the last two days and you don't see me walking around saying I'm the Virgin Mary.

I turned back to face the girl again. "I'm not going to walk around calling you God; don't you have like a normal name like Jessica, or Hannah?"

"Jen just forget it." Devin sighed.

I frowned and turned back to look out the windshield. Why couldn't I have found a military force squad or something to drive around with? We didn't even have any guns. I think Ruff still had his pocketknives but that isn't going to do that much against a group of zombies. So when we took an exit to hit up another gas station I was sure something bad was going to happen.

"You two stay in the car and lock the doors. We'll be right back out." Ruff said to me when he finished gassing up the truck. He then grunted at Devin to get out of the truck. Ah crap now I'm going to be alone with little miss God over here. Which is okay I guess because I would rather stay in the truck then go outside.

"So…where you from?" I tried to start a conversaiton casually. Ruff and Devin were walking into the store cautiously making sure everything was clear.

"Heaven." She replied coolly. "And they should not be going in there."

"Oh yeah I forgot God lives in Heaven." I rolled my eyes. "Wait what did you say?"

"They should not be going in there." She repeated calm as ever.

"Why shouldn't they?" I asked with a growing heavy feeling in my stomach.

"Look." The girl pointed out. I followed her finger to a group of about ten or twenty zombies who were marching our way. Granted they were marching very slowly but they were getting closer every second.

"Oh crap they must have come around the back of the building!" Now what do I do? Devin and Ruff don't know the zombie people are practically knocking on the doors to the store and even if they did it wouldn't do much good because there are too many of them and we don't have guns.

Without even thinking I opened my door. "Hey you!" I shouted at the zombies. "We're over here!" The zombies turned like a wave towards the car. "Uh oh." I whispered and jumped back into the car. Why the hell did I do something like that? Oh my gosh was I actually being brave? I think I was! I was brave! I might have saved Ruff and Devin's lives!

The truck shook as the zombies swamped it trying to tear through the metal and get at us. The little girl in the back seat sat perfectly still gazing out the of the zombies were trying to bite on the window on my side and they made me forget about the whole being brave thing. Screw being brave I wanted to live!

"Do something God!" I shouted at the little girl like a dumbass. I cannot believe I had called her that.

"I can't interfere with mortals." The little girl said lifting her hand to the window. Man I was really starting to hate her.

I crawled over to the driver's side where the keys were still in the ignition. "Hang on," I pulled on the gears and spun out. The monsters were still clinging to the sides of the truck. A couple of them had gotten into the bed of the truck as well. I spun the truck around in circles around in circles trying to get them off.

"Ahhh!" I screamed as the blood rushed to my head. I couldn't tell what was going on anymore I just kept slamming on the gas and turning the steering whell. The truck was spinning out of control and blood and guts were splattering all over the windows. I finally slammed on the brakes sending the two zombies still in the back flying out. They hit a near by gas pump head first and stopped moving.

There wasn't any noise after I stopped. I couldn't see through the windshield because it was smeared with blood and the windshield wipers really didn't help at all except to smear it even more. Uh-oh. Ruff was going to be mad at me.

Suddenly the last zombie threw itself onto the hood of the truck and roared at me. I screamed back loudly and reversed the truck until it fell off. Then I changed gears and ran him over a couple of times just to make sure he was really dead.

"What the hell did you do?" Devin shouted from the front door. He dropped all the groceries he was carrying and looked aroung at the carnage.

"Damn." Ruff said stepping out of the store.

"She did it!" I pointed back at the little girl. She sighed and stepped out of the car. "We saved your lives." She walked over to Devin and began to pick up the dropped supplies.

"What do you mean _we_?!" I shouted out the window outraged. "I did all the work!"

"I thought you just said she did it?" Devin brought up just to annoy me.

"Let's just get back into the car before more show up." Ruff grunted and made his way over to the truck. Devin and the girl followed.

I glared at her with the utmost disgust. "Who does she think she is?" I mumbled as Devin climbed into the back .

"God." He answered back seconds before her and Ruff took their seats.

"Great how am I supposed to see?" Ruff complained trying to peer through the blood beginning to cake on the windows.

"Nice going Jen. Now how are we supposed to get out of here?" Devin groaned.

"Hey shut up Devin if it weren't for me you'd be dead." I hissed back.

"Well when those crazy gang people catch up with us we're all going to be dead!" Devin raised his voice.

"Stop arguing my children." The little girl instructed as she reached out to place her hands on mine and Devin's shoulders.

That did it for me, I lunged into the back seat trying to land a punch or hit on the girl but Ruff pulled me back harshly. Me and Devin were still screaming at each other during all of this.

"Cut this shit out now!" Ruff bellowed over the noise. The truck went silent. "We are not going to fight. That's the quickest way people die in these situations!"

"I agree." Little girl aka God answered.

I crossed my arms and looked down at the floorboard gloomily. "Yeah, I guess you're right…sort of."

"Good now Devin get out and clean off the windshield." Ruff motioned to the window wiping station a few feet away.

"Why do I have to do it?!" Devin complained loudly.

"Do it kid." Ruff said again. And Devin got out.

"Jen I want you to apologize to God." Ruff then said.

"Don't call her that! And I don't have to apologize because she started it!"

"Jennifer…" He warned.

I sighed and turned back around. I tactfully avoided eye contact and muttered "LookI'mSorry." Really fast and barely audible.

"That wasn't good enough." Ruff said again as the blood was vanishing from the windshield thanks to Devin.

"I'm sorry." I answered again through clenched teeth.

"Accepted." Was all the girl answered. I wanted to take a swing at her again but Ruff seemed to sense that and placed his gigantic hand on my shoulder in warning. I leaned back in my seat and slouched down with my arms crossed firmly across my chest.

Stupid little girl, she is more trouble than she is worth. I thought to myself as Devin slid back into the car. "Let's go we can't be that much further from the border."

Ruff pulled the truck back out onto the highway slowly. There were a lot of abandoned and totaled cars littering the road. Some zombies were staggering harmlessly along after us.

"God, we are doing like 25 mph on the highway!" Devin exclaimed.

"I know I can see." The crazy girl answered back to him.

I clenched my fists then relaxed them after Ruff shot me a look. "I know, I know." I sighed and looked back out the window. This was taking forever. God, I mean the real God, please let my mom be alright…


	7. Chapter 7

I had fallen asleep slumped against the cool window and when I woke up it was dark again. "How long was I out? What time is it?" I asked rubbing my face.

"It's about nine." Ruff answered me. I looked into the back seat were Devin and the girl were. The girl was staring out the window with blank eyes while Devin had his forehead smashed against the window with his mouth wide open. "Hey Ruff do you have a pen or a marker or something?" I asked grinning at the unsuspecting Devin. I had it all planned out. Devin was going to wake up with a uni brow and a funny guy mustache.

"Look at that we made it." Ruff ignored me and pointed at another road sign. "We're in Texas."

I looked at the green sign that was lit up by the truck's headlights. It had the Texan Flag and said "Welcome to The Lone Star State."

"It's about time." I sighed. "It'll probably take until morning to reach Abilene. Aren't you tired? You've been driving all day."

"I'm fine." Ruff grunted. "We might need to pull over a little later for more gas."

"You remember what happened last time we did that? We were almost killed."

"Well would you rather stop at a gas station and almost get killed or walk the rest of the way and defiantly get killed?" Ruff pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right." I agreed. I glanced back at Devin and the girl. Abilene was my hometown. It wasn't nearly as big as Dallas or Fort Worth but it sure wasn't small. The probability of my mom still being alive was slim to none. I knew this, but I tried not to dwell on it. "This place is probably going to be packed with zombies."

"We'll see. Hopefully most of them left in search of bigger cities." Ruff grunted. He was just trying to make me feel better and I appreciated that. I rubbed my red and swollen eyes and a split second later I felt the truck jerk to the side and then all I saw was black.

"What the hell?" Devin groaned loudly. I opened my eyes and noticed something was immediately wrong. Ruff wasn't moving and we were upside down. "The truck has flipped over." The little girl answered back.

"No shit!" Devin growled. "Is everyone alright?"

"Ruff isn't moving." I said as I unbuckled and lowered myself carefully. "Ruff? Ruff wake up!" I slapped his face lightly. This is not good. I need Ruff and his one hand.

"What happened? How did we flip over?" Devin unbuckled and crawled over to Ruff as well.

"I'm not sure I wasn't watching the road." I answered turning back to Ruff's body. "Ruff!"

"Jen that's not going to get him up." Devin announced pushing me back slightly. "We need to get out of here."

What is Devin's problem? Can he not see that it is pitch dark outside? "I'm not getting out of the truck even if it is flipped over." I shot back defiantly. "I'm staying in here with Ruff."

Just then the windshield cracked loudly. "Jen the glass is going to shatter any second now we have to get out of here!" Devin shouted turning back around to help the girl.

"I'm not leaving Ruff!" I shouted back.

"Jen Ruff is DEAD!"

"He is not dead!" I roared as the glass began to show tiny cracks resembling spider webs.

"GET OUT OF THE TRUCK NOW!" Devin screamed at me again.

"Not without Ruff!"

"Jen get out of the truck." Ruff growled.

Holy crap I was right Ruff was alive! Take that Devin you stupid know it all!

"Jen!" Devin was still yelling at me as he climbed out of the truck after the little girl who was already standing on the pavement. Ruff kicked his way out of the door and then reached back in to pull me out by my arms.

"I could have done that by myself!" I hollered as Ruff set me down. The glass completely shattered a second later. I ducked my head instinctively. When I looked up again Ruff was looking at me with a smirk, his arms folded securely across his chest. "But-uh-thanks anyway buddy." I added sheepishly dusting myself off.

"Come on, we have to get somewhere safe for the night." Ruff was still smiling as he said this.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, not so fast Mr. Tough guy." Devin stepped forward. "First you're going to tell us what the hell just happened."

"There was something in the road, a deer or something. Not my fault I turned to hard." Ruff held up his stump as if it was an excuse.

"What do you mean it's not your fault? It is completely your fault!" Devin pointed a finger at him. "Now you want us to follow you?"

"I don't care whose fault it is I'm following Ruff." And that was the truth. I have grown way too attached to Ruff. He was that extra security I needed right now.

"We should stick together." The girl finally piped up.

"Finally Claire is talking some sense!" I sighed. "Halleluiah!"

"Claire?" Ruff and Devin asked at the same time.

"I've decided to call her Claire."

"My name is not Claire." Claire said with a twinge of anger in her voice. She actually sounded pretty scary when she was mad. Maybe I should think twice before pissing her off. Eh, what the hell.

"Well I told you before I'm not calling you God."

"Jen, please." Ruff tried.

"Don't 'Jen please' me!" I said. Pssh I don't have to call her God.

"What was that?" Devin said suddenly.

"Ha ha very funny Devin, nice try." I laughed at his attempt to try to scare me.

"No I'm serious I heard something."

I stopped and listened hard. "I don't hear anyth-" then I did hear it. A low moan and a shuffle of leaves. "Oh shit!"

"Nobody move." Ruff whispered.

"Fuck that let's run!" I whispered back. I have come way too far to die now.

"You're not going anywhere."

The moan started to get further away until I couldn't hear it at all anymore. "Is it gone?"

"I don't know I can't see shit." Devin whispered.

"Don't curse." Claire said in a regular voice which sounded like shouting in the quiet night.

"Shhh!" I immediately whispered. "You want that thing to come back?"

"What if there are more out there?" Devin said nervously. Crap, he was right. There could be one right behind me for all I know. How is it that I always get into situations like this? Seriously, there we were four unarmed people in the middle of a deserted road in the dead of night. Yup, I'm going to die.

"Everyone for tonight let's all get back under the truck. It will provide some shelter until at least morning." Ruff said.

"Are you sure getting back in the truck is safe? There is glass everywhere." Devin pointed out.

"He meant underneath the bed. There isn't any glass under there and it'll be enough room for all of us." I answered for him. I wasn't too keen on slipping under there for a night but it was better than sitting out in the dark where anything could get to us.

"Okay and then what?" Devin asked.

"We'll worry about that when the time comes kid just get under the truck!" Ruff was getting annoyed I could tell. And getting Ruff annoyed probably wasn't the best idea if you know what I mean. Claire rolled under and I followed her. Ruff and Devin stood outside talking about something before they finally crawled under.

"See? This isn't that bad! In the morning we'll find some shelter, maybe find another car." Ruff chuckled. "Let's all get some sleep huh?"

Devin almost fell asleep immediately, but I stayed up. I wasn't tired and every sound the night made caused shivers to run up and down my spine. Ruff began snoring not to long after Claire finally succumbed to sleep as well. I was left alone with my thoughts.

In the last three days I have gone through one car, a truck, and a motorcycle. Man, maybe mom not buying me my own car wasn't such a bad idea after all…

I woke up startled with someone's hand clamped around my mouth. Devin was looking at me with his finger pressed against his lips, silently instructing me to be quiet.

Aw crap why do we have to be quiet? Well I got my answer a second later, boots crunched on the broken glass outside.

"They ain't here. Probably ran off in them woods over there and got themselves eaten." A man said.

"Gage won't be happy unless we bring back some bodies." Another man answered the first.

"Fuck Gage," The first man spit onto the pavement. "If it weren't for him I could be in that fort with the others."

"Now what then? Are we going to go back?" The second man pondered out loud.

Devin pulled his hand off of my mouth and pulled out a pocket knife. Where the hell did he get that from? How come I don't have a knife or a hammer or something at least! I looked over to Ruff and he pulled out a knife too!

I turned to Claire half-expecting her to pull out a shot gun but she just shrugged at me.

"Nah, I'm not going back. Gage is starting to change, ever since he started eating those dead folk."

I watched as Devin and Ruff army-crawled closer to the pair of feet sticking underneath the truck bed. Oh geez this isn't going to be good. Claire reached over and covered my eyes with her hands. I batted them away annoyed, but not without making a loud slapping noise.

"What the hell was what?" On the men asked and the feet moved out of Ruff or Devin's reach.

Devin and Ruff froze and looked at me in utter non-belief. I gave them a half-grin and shrugged.

"I think it came from the truck."

"Well check it out then!"

Timidly the feet returned as the man bent down. He was moving really slowly or maybe I just thought he was because I knew what was about to happen. A hand touched the pavement and then a knee the man's face slowly peered into the truck and before he could count how many of us were under here Devin thrusted his knife into the man's eye.

"Holy F-" I started to scream as blood shot out all over us. The man was screaming and thrashing around. Ruff pushed passed him and climbed out obviously keen on attacking the other man who was also screaming loudly.

"I'm getting out of here!" I shouted and climbed out as quickly as I could. When I stood up outside I witnessed Ruff gutting the other man with his knife. He jerked it back out and splattered even more blood in my face.

I felt it again. The urge to throw up.

Devin pushed the body aside and crawled out. Ruff threw the other body off to the side of the road like it was a rag doll. And I was on my knees throwing up a lung. "Jesus Jen." Ruff said picking me up. "You have to start getting use to this sometime. You don't see her throwing up do you?" He pointed at Claire who was being wiped clean by Devin.

"Yeah well what do you expect? She _is_ God." I spit.

"Well we are all okay now and that's all that is important." Ruff sighed as he looked down on the two bodies.

"And now we have guns!" Devin shouted holding up a small pistol. Ruff walked over to the two motorcycles that lined the road. Each one had a shot gun strapped to it.

"Here." Devin threw the pistol at me and rushed to pick up a shot gun from Ruff. I examined the pistol carefully. This thing would not do that much damage."Hey no fair I want a bigger gun!" I said to Devin who was craddling his new shot gun.

"No way you don't even know how to shoot!" Devin shouted back.

"The boy is right Jen." Ruff sighed. "It could be dangerous to let you hold something that dangerous."

I groaned. Ruff had made his decision so I had to deal with it. Devin chuckled and when Ruff's back was turned he held up the gun and pretended to shoot me. I launched towards him and was able to get him on his back. Then I started to throw punches into his face. He could have fought back but I knew he didn't want to actually hurt me so I was taking full advantage of that.

Ruff pulled me off but I continued to squirm in his grasp even though I was a few inches off the ground. Suddenly and unexpectantly Ruff dropped me hard to the ground. I fell flat on my face in front of Devin.

"Oh shit…" I whispered. Above Devin stood a woman who was holding him down with a crude spear pointed straight at his heart. I scarambled back towards Ruff only to see the he too was being held at knife point by another woman who was almost as tall as he. Then I turned to see if Claire was okay and what I saw shocked me. Claire was standing with two more women, each one had a hand on each of her shoulders.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked in disbelief.

"You are coming with us." The tall woman holding Ruff answered.


	8. Chapter 8

I was pulled up to my feet roughly by a lady with brown messy hair and small reading glasses. "Did they hurt you?" She asked.

"What?" I still couldn't comprehend what was going on. I watched as Devin and Ruff were being loaded into an open roof Jeep. "Hey! Where are they taking them?" I pointed to the Jeep as it turned off road and began to drive off.

"Don't worry. They won't be able to hurt either of you girls again." The woman answered me gesturing towards Claire who was standing with two other grown women.

"Hurt us? They weren't hurting us!" I protested.

"That's not how we saw it." One of the women standing with Claire pointed out. Oh crap, they must have saw Devin's and my fight.

"No, you don't understand! You got it all wrong! Tell them Claire!" I was practically begging for her support.

"I told you my name is not Claire." Was all she answered back with. Damn it.

"It's okay. You are just suffering from some physiological effects. We understand if you do not want to talk about your time with those men." The woman next to me said. I groaned into my hands.

"We should get them back Rebecca. You know, before more show up."

The woman named Rebecca wearing the glasses looked down at me. "We are going to take you girls somewhere where it will be safe. Where no man will ever touch you again."

"No man HAS touched me!" I was practically screaming.

"I think she has lost it Becca. Maybe the heat is getting to her." The other woman said as she helped Claire climb into a second jeep. "Look you ladies really do not understand!" I tried to reason while Rebecca dragged me towards the jeep by my elbow. She wasn't buying it and Claire had not said anything to back up my statements.

Rebecca sat me down in the jeep and then went back to pick up the guns Ruff and Devin had been forced to drop. "Let's get back." She told the driver as she jumped into the back.

"Get back where? Where are we going?" I asked as the jeep lurched forward. We were driving off road in the same direction the first jeep went off in.

"It's a small hole in the wall kind of town. It had been abandoned for years even before this whole mess happened. You'll like it there. Nothing and no one comes out that far." The woman sitting in the passenger seat turned around to explain to me.

"You mean to tell me there is a whole town completely untouched by what has happened this week?" I asked.

"Well, it is pretty run down. No one has lived there in close to ten years. But as far as zombies and gangs, nothing." Rebecca answered me now.

"So who are you guys? Are you gang?" I had to shout over the noise of the jeep.

"Sort of." Rebecca shouted back. "Our gang is exclusively made up of women though. You both will feel very welcome there."

I swallowed hard. Me and Claire would be welcome there alright; the same would not be the same for Devin and Ruff. "What about the boys?"

"Don't worry kid. We will take care of them." The woman in the passenger seat assured me.

"How about some introductions?" Rebecca changed the subject before I had time to object. "You might have noticed my name is Rebecca already."

"I'm Jennifer. Most everyone calls me Jen though."

"Alright Jen. And who is this?" She pointed at Claire sitting beside me.

"I am God." Claire answered calmly not even looking at her. Rebecca looked at me with her eyebrows raised.

"I just call her Claire." I explained to her.

"Right, well this is Rachel." Rebecca pointed to the woman in the passenger seat. "Nice to meet you Jen." she reached her hand around to shake mine. "And our driver today is Lana."

"Okay…so what exactly do you ladies do?"

"Search and rescue mostly. We know there are crazy men out there that kidnap girls and take advantage of them. Every girl at our base has a job. I'm sort of like the camp doctor for instance." Rebecca explained. "Rachel and Lana provide cover fire whenever Erica and Jane go into to rescue."

"Erica?" I asked.

"Oh I'm sorry I forgot about that part." Rebecca laughed. "Erica is our leader of sorts. Jane is her younger sister. They were the ones who took down those guys you were with. Pretty badass huh?"

"Look, I appreciate you all looking out for us but-"

"We are almost there." Claire announced interrupting me. I looked at her. "How in the world do you know this stuff?"

"She's right." Rebecca pointed towards a collection of small buildings. There were no roads anywhere around it. No wonder no one had found it yet.

"What are you going to do with us?" I asked Rebecca.

She laughed again and re-adjusted her glasses. "We won't do anything but feed you and give you a nice place to rest. Like I said, you have nothing to worry about with us."

"You got that right." Lana laughed too.

I leaned out the side of the jeep to get a closer look at the small town we were approaching. I was never going to find my mom at this rate. Damn side-tracking adventures.

The jeep lurched to a stop and I slammed back into my seat. "Alright, ladies! Everybody out!" Rebecca announced cheerfully jumping out of the back. As I climbed out I looked around. We were in an empty parking lot on the east side of town. There were three other jeeps, a motorcycle, and a couple of mini-vans in the parking lot as well. Wow, they had their own parking garage.

"Come on up. I'll take you two to Erica. Rachel help Lana unload the jeep and I'll catch up with you two tonight." Rebecca pushed Claire and me in front of her.

"Will do captain!" Lana fake saluted and handed Rachel a box from the back.

"How about a tour first ladies?" Rebecca asked us. Claire stared off into the distance like she always does. "Actually, I think I need to use the restroom if you don't mind?" I asked casually. I was already forming a plan in my mind.

"Sure." Rebecca stopped and looked around. "We don't have any working plumbing though, you are going to have to rough it."

"Um. That's not a problem." I turned red. I have been out here all week.

"Okay, go a little ways back and it will be the green building on your right. Behind there we have some make-shift showers and…well I wouldn't call them toilets but you get the idea." Rebecca pointed down the dirt rows running between the buildings. I nodded when I saw what building she was talking about.

"So…I guess I will be back in one second." I tried acting as casual as I could. I slowly stepped backwards. Rebecca grinned down at me. "No problem. We'll wait here for you."

Claire looked into my eyes and mouthed the word "no". Damn she knew what I was going to do. "You better not tell anyone you little-" I was thinking over and over again in my head. Claire closed her eyes and nodded at me. Did she understand me? Oh wow this was just too weird.

I slowly turned around and half ran down towards the building. I turned the corner out of sight and stopped. Okay, time to set my plan into action.

Step 1: Get away from Rebecca.

That seems easy enough, I mean I am only in a new strange place getting around can't be that hard right?

I looked around me. Buckets of water were littered around in the dirt. I guess these were the showers. There were also small holes piled up with dirt. I could only imagine what those could be, how do campers live like this? I had to stay focused though. No doubt Rebecca was still watching the corner for me. I turned my attention to the opposite side of the building; she wouldn't be looking at that corner. Hopefully.

I darted across the path on the opposite side of the building and slammed my back onto the building across from it. No one saw me or they would have called out my name. So far so good. Alright so I got step 1 down sort of, now time for step 2.

Step 2: find Devin and Ruff.

There was a window a few feet away from me. Well I might as well see where I am at. I peeked into the window using my best James Bond impression.

"Did you see that first guy? He was huge."

I gasped. They just had to be talking about Ruff.

"Yeah, and that other one was pretty young. It makes me wonder if he wasn't a victim too."

Two women were having a conversation inside. I couldn't quite see them but I could hear their voices through a small crack in the window.

"Oh, he wasn't a victim. Erica and Jane said they caught him attacking a girl. They found two of them."

"No kidding. Maybe we should go out and meet them."

I shrunk back down against the wall as the women's voices drifted away. I crawled around the back and checked to see if the coast was clear. There was one girl possibly younger than me sitting in a chair outside a small shack the women probably built themselves. She was holding a rifle but didn't look like she was paying much attention to anything but her fingernails. The two women I overheard came around the corner on the other side.

"Hey Courtney, we are going to go meet the new girls want to come?" One of the ladies asked. She looked pretty young too. She was probably in her late teens.

"I can't I'm the new prison guard." Courtney rolled her eyes and jutted her thumb back towards the shack. My eyes widened. Step 2 accomplished.

"Oh who cares they are chained up right?" The other girl waved her hand off.

"Well, of course they are…"

"So you won't get in trouble for leaving them alone for a few moments."

Courtney frowned. "Erica is going to get mad at me."

"What Erica doesn't know won't hurt her."

Courtney shrugged and stood up. "Fine."

I could not believe my luck. This was incredibly easy. I laughed to myself as the three girls walked around another corner. No time to lose focus now.

Step 3: free Devin and Ruff.

I darted over to the shack and pulled on the door. Crap it was locked. Now what?

"Jen? Jennifer!" I heard Rebecca shouting my name. Shit she found out I was gone. I ran around behind the shack. I had to think fast. How was I going to get in without Rebecca spotting me breaking down the door? I couldn't see any windows. Suddenly an idea popped into my head. The shack was built on dirt. I could dig under. Without pausing to think about it I tore into the dirt along the back wall of the shack.

Rebecca continued to shout my name but it didn't seem like she was getting any closer. I was making progress with my digging. My nails were breaking off and starting to bleed a little but it didn't slow me down. Finally I had a hole big enough I could squeeze under.

"Jennifer! Where are you?" Rebecca called one last time. By now she was sounding dangerously close. I pushed myself through the hole and army called through the dirt until I was inside the shack. Sure enough on the opposite corners sat Ruff and Devin bound and gagged.

"Oh thank God I found you guys!" I sighed with relief. Devin was trying to say something to me but the rope around his mouth prevented his words from making a sort of sense.

I rushed over and removed his gag. "I said, it's about time!"

"Well fine Devin you can just stay here and I'll get Ruff out." I protested as I moved onto Ruff.

"Where is the little girl?" Ruff asked me immediately.

"She's fine. I think she will be fine here, but you guys won't. We need to get out of here fast." I explained to him. Just then the shack door slammed open. In the doorway stood the burly woman who had Ruff at knife point earlier. Her raven black hair was clinging to her face.

"Someone want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" She asked through clenched teeth.

I swallowed hard. This must be Erica…


	9. Chapter 9

Erica yanked me out of the shack rather violently.

"Hey don't touch her!" Devin roared.

Another blonde girl stepped in and jammed Devin in the stomach with her rifle butt. "Hey don't hurt him he was only trying to protect me!" I shouted trying to break away from Erica's iron grip.

"Listen, ma'am I don't think you understand the situation." Ruff tried to reason. The blonde girl smacked him in the face with her rifle then but Ruff didn't even flinch. He shook his head once and then said "Are you done hitting people now?"

This sent the blonde girl into a fury. She raised her rifle to strike him again but the lady Erica stopped her.

"Jane that's enough." Erica cautioned. Jane lowered her arm only to spit in the dirt in front of Ruff. "You have my attention." Erica spoke to Ruff directly now.

"Well." Ruff cleared his throat. What was this? Was Ruff showing signs of nervousness? I watched with anticipation. "The girl and the boy here, found me. I use to be with a gang. We escaped, drove all the way here, and then you caught us. We are traveling companions, none of us our each other's hostages."

Erica watched him closely. She then looked down at me. "Is he telling the truth girl?"

"Oh yeah that's the truth. Ruff has never touched me." I was a little too eager with my answer.

Erica glanced around. A small crowd had gathered around us in a half circle. I spotted Rebecca standing with Claire looking very confused. Well I did try to tell her.

"Untie the men." Erica eventually conceded.

"But Erica-" Jane protested.

"If we keep them hostage it doesn't make us any different than the people we are suppose to be against. Now untie them and get them something to eat." Erica released her hold on me.

"Erica are you sure this is safe for the community?" Jane asked.

Erica paused for a moment. She walked over to Devin and crouched down so that she was eye level with him. "This is your one warning kid. Don't try anything with anyone. Don't get hot for anyone. Keep it in your pants or I will cut it off."

Devin's eyes widened and he closed his mouth tightly. Well I guess Ruff wasn't the only one who could make him shut up. Erica stood up and looked down at Ruff "Same goes for you." and then she walked out of the shack and through the crowd of women.

"Freeeeeedom!" Devin shouted as he stepped out of the shack. The group of almost twenty women stared at him in a mixture of shock and disgust.

"Devin knock it off." I whispered angrily at him. Rebecca was the first to start walking towards us. "I'm sorry Jen I really should have listened to you. I just thought- well you must know what happens out there and I was just trying to-"

I held my hands up. "It's okay Rebecca. I understand and thanks for looking out for me."

"Hey God!" Devin ran to Claire and began spinning her around in a circle. "I was praying you would get us out of there!"

"And you see how it came true? Believe my children." Claire sighed.

I frowned. Once again I did all the work and she still gets credit. "Oh yeah? Well I pray for some waffle fries and a decent cheese burger." I put my hands on my hips.

"Ladies, its dinner time." A woman dressed in white called from a nearby door way. The women and Devin all rushed inside while I just stared at Claire intently.

"Sorry. It's not waffle fries." She said and then skipped past me leaving me alone with Ruff.

"That kid is good." Ruff laughed out loud and slammed his hand down onto my shoulder.

"Shut up Ruff." I groaned and dragged my feet towards the dining hall.

Dinner was good. Well as good as it could have been I suppose. It was mostly mush but at least it didn't make me want to throw up and it defiantly gave me some extra energy. I wanted to go get Devin or Ruff and go explore but Rebecca caught me first.

"Hey Jen I got a job for you."

"Job?"

"Yeah. Do you see Courtney over there? She is the red head holding that rifle." Rebecca pointed across the room. Sure enough an awkward looking teenage girl stood in the corner shifting her weight around. She was the girl guarding Devin and Ruff earlier. I nodded.

"You are going to follow her when she makes her rounds so you can learn our routes and she'll give you a proper tour if you have the time."

"Oh, no we're not staying here." I objected as kindly as I could.

"Nonsense, Erica won't let anyone leave right now. The outside is crawling with gangs and they brought the zombies with them. Now get going. Courtney will get you some firepower." Rebecca stood and left as quickly as she came.

This is going to be awkward I thought as I too stood up and walked slowly over to Courtney. "Hey." I said casually when I approached her.

"Oh. Hi." She answered back timidly then looked off away from me. I scratched the back of my head nervously. "Rebecca says, that I'm supposed to go on rounds with you?"

Courtney looked back to me. "Oh I'm sorry! I'm just a little flustered today." She shook her light red hair all over the place.

"Well. Should we head out now then?" I asked rocking back on my heels.

"Right, right. We can stop by the ammo dump and get you something first. Just follow me." Courtney led me outside. The sun was barely starting to go down. I survived another day.

"So, um you have been traveling with men?" She was trying to start a conversation but I could tell she wasn't really the talkative type. Which was fine by me.

"Yeah. But it's not how you think. We are all just friends." I sighed. I just called them my friends; well I suppose that is what they were.

"I was with men the first day." Courtney told me. "Erica found me before anything happened. They killed my brothers."

"Wow. I'm so sorry." I stopped. Courtney turned around and examined me. "I miss them." was all she said before she started walking again.

We carried on in silence for awhile until we reached a tiny building that might have been used as a post office in its prime. "This is where we keep all of our weapons and ammo. You have to check the guns out so we can keep accountability. Have you ever shot a gun before?"

"Once. I went hunting with my dad when I was young. I was terrible at it though…"

"Well that's actually a lot better than most girls here." Courtney waltz up to the counter.

"Hey girls!" Lana shouted from the back. "I figured you'd be showing up sooner or later." She pointed at me and pulled out a black spiral notebook. "What do we got Courtney?"

"She needs a gun, probably a pistol. "

"Here we go." Lana slid a small revolver over the counter to me. "I'll mark it all down for you girls." Lana pulled a clipboard out and began to write on a piece of paper.

"Come on." Courtney said to me pulling me out the door.

"Be careful with that!" Lana called as we left.

Courtney and I walked to the very outskirts of the small town. Courtney stopped to scan for anything off in the distance then she turned to me. "We circle to encampment two times, then we go up each individual row until we get back to the dining facility. It takes awhile but I normally skip a few rows." She shrugged and began walking again.

I nodded and gripped my weapon. "So have you ever actually seen anything doing this?"

"I haven't. Rumor has it though that Erica killed a whole horde with her bare hands to clear out the town before we all got here." Courtney sighed.

I thought of Erica, it certainly seemed like something she would do. "What is her story? And her sister's?"

Courtney shrugged again. "I don't think anyone knows


	10. Chapter 10

I woke up that night after having the most graphic and detailed dream I had ever had in my entire life. Devin, Ruff, and Claire were all dead and I was surrounded by the entire gang who were also zombies. I looked around the small room as I caught my breath. Claire, aka God was lying in her cot staring at me intently.

"Stop that. You are creeping me out." I said. She shrugged and rolled over to face the opposite wall. The other girls in the room were still fast asleep. I didn't know where Ruff and Devin were. Erica said it wouldn't be appropriate to let us all sleep together like we normal did. Normally when I'd have a nightmare Ruff would be there to calm me back to sleep.

I stepped off of my cot and made my way to the door. "Don't go out there." Claire told me but she isn't my boss so I went out anyway.

It was kind of cold outside. My hair was still damp from the dirty water shower I had taken a few hours before. There were a few women walking around, doing their rounds. In the dark I walked up one of the rows. I guess I was good at blending in because no one questioned me. No one questioned me until I ran into the lunatic himself moments later.

"Hey Jen! Are you looking for food too?" He asked wiping crumbs off his lips.

"Looks like you already found some." Why do guys eat so much? I have a theory that all men have a second stomach and it is located in their head right next to their brain.

And sometimes they get their brain and second stomach confused with each other and that's why they say that a man thinks with his stomach. Man, I have had way too much time on my hands to think of that.

"Well then I'll help you find some food." Devin smiled and reached for my hand.

"No." I pulled my hand back. "I'm good on the whole food issue."

"Then why are you out here so early?"

"What are you my mom?" Sheesh everyone in our little group thinks they can tell me what to do, or question my behavior like my parents.

Devin shrugged and looked around. I must say it was a very awkward. "So…" I said rocking back on my heels trying to open conversation again.

"Let's go on a walk." Devin grabbed my hand this time and started to drag me along behind him.

"Hey cut it out I can walk on my own!" I protested loudly. Devin turned around and clamped his hand over my mouth.

"Shh, if those Amazonians hear you they are going to think I am attacking you again." He whispered.

I licked the palm of his hand and he pulled back in disgust. "Serves you right. I hope they do get you." I said right before I started wiping my tongue trying to get his taste out of my mouth.

Devin laughed and started to pull me along again anyway. "You wouldn't do that to me." He smiled.

"I would do it in a heartbeat." I lied. I wouldn't turn Devin over mostly because that would mean I would have to rescue him again. And let's be honest I really wasn't up to anymore shenanigans. "Where are we going exactly?"

"It's a surprise."

"Devin tell me where we are going or I am going to start screaming." Haha that'll make him tell me.

"Fine. We are going to my top secret hiding place." Devin turned a corner naturally dragging me with him.

"We have been here for a day and you already have a top secret hiding place?" I was impressed.

"Of course I do." Devin turned around one of the last buildings. There were tiny footholds in the back wall. I watched as he climbed up the wall and crawled over onto the roof. "Are you coming or not?" He peeked his head back over.

"Not." I said and turned to walk away. I wasn't getting on a roof with a lunatic that's for sure. I was going to go find Ruff and see about getting out of here and closer to finding my mom.

"Jen just get up here." Devin ordered. I groaned and turned around. "I'll fall I am not going up there."

"I won't let you fall now come on!" Devin reached his hand over.

"Yeah, I don't think so. I will see you later Devin."

"Jen." Devin was using his 'stern' voice. I had never heard it before so it was kind of weird.

"Fine I'll come up but only if you shut up for like five seconds." I growled. I pulled myself up on the first foothold and then looked for my next move. I guess Devin was getting impatient because he reached for me and yanked me over as soon as I got close enough.

"I could have done that by myself thank-you!" I said while dusting myself off. "You need to work on your manners."

Devin grinned and turned away from me. He walked to the opposite edge and sat down. "Now what are you doing?" I asked following him.

"I'm going to watch the sunrise." He answered nonchalantly.

"Gay." I sniggered behind his back.

"Gay? I thought girls liked sensitive guys!" Devin turned to look at me.

"Hah! Who are you trying to impress? There aren't any girls up here!" I laughed. Devin looked away quickly and I stopped laughing. I swallowed, Devin liked me. I mean I liked him too but I thought it was just because we were friends.

I walked closer and sat beside him on the edge with our legs dangling over the top. "I'm sorry." I apologized not bothering to look at him.

"Nah, don't worry about it." Devin patted my hand gently. I took his hand and held it in mine. He stayed like that for another couple of minutes before either of us open our mouths again. It was awkward, but it was like a good kind of awkward. It just felt right holding Devin's hand, I can't explain it.

"Jen…" Then he leaned over and lightly kissed my cheek. That shocked me so much I almost fell off the side. Devin grabbed me in time and held me steady. He bent his head towards me. Holy crap he was going to kiss me again.

Only for real this time. I didn't know what to do so I tilted my head to accommodate his. It seemed like it was moving a lot slower than it should. Just when I could feel his breath blowing on my lips I heard someone clearly their throat loudly.

"What is going on up there?" Ruff was directly below us.

"Shit!" Devin tossed his hands up in the air.

I could feel how hot my face was getting. I'm glad it was dark or Ruff would have seen me having a blush fit. "Uh, we were just going to watch the sunrise. That's all that was."

"And you had to put your heads that close together to watch the sunrise?" Ruff had a hint of amusement in his voice. Damn him.

"Duh Ruff! That's how kids these days watch the sunrise. Get with the program grandpa." I was coming up with this off the top of my head. Devin buried his head in his arms because he was laughing so hard. I wanted to punch that kid off the building.

"I can see you two are busy. I'll come back later." Ruff smiled and started to walk off.

Devin was still laughing and I gave him a playful push. "That was your entire fault."

"Oh and Jen?" Ruff called turning around.

"What?" I asked, still completely mortified.

"You might want to face the other direction if you want to see the sunrise."


	11. Chapter 11

I avoided Devin for the whole day. It wasn't that hard really Courtney and Rebecca kept me busy. However whenever I would see Ruff he would give me a knowing smile. It was fair to say he is never going to let this go. Still, I felt myself getting less mad at Devin and angrier with Ruff for interrupting. I had to shake my head when I thought about kissing Devin. I had more important things to worry about.

I was washing my hands in one of the buckets after dinner and Claire waltzed up next to me. "Don't be ashamed. You have no choice in who you love. The Almighty takes care of that for you."

"Shut up Claire." I growled.

"Jen!" Courtney was running up to me. We had just finished rounds about an hour ago. "I heard you were making out with the boy!"

"No I wasn't doing anything." I lied and continued walking.

"Jennifer I heard you were alone with the new guy. Is that true? Erica would not approve." Rebecca strode up beside us.

"What the hell? Does the whole freakin' town know about this?!" I shouted.

"So it is true." Courtney smiled. "What was it like?"

"I already told you I didn't do anything. We were just talking." I tried explaining.

"Do not lie in the presence of God." Claire commanded.

"Claire I swear to God, if you do not drop the whole God thing I am going to strangle you!"

"Do not swear to me."

"Gah!" I screamed and stormed off. I was losing my mind I could tell.

"Jen, are you alright?" Ruff asked me. He was standing near some of the jeeps.

"Since when have I ever been alright?" I sighed and sat down in front of him.

"Fair enough." Ruff shrugged and took a knee in front of me. "Look I haven't forgotten my promise."

"Your promise? You mean about my mom?" I asked and looked up at his face.

"Yes that one. And we are still going to go find her. We just have to get out of here first."

"How are we going to do that? Erica said no one can leave."

"I figure, what Erica doesn't know won't hurt her." Ruff smirked a little. "I got a plan but we have to act tonight. Erica and her sister are going out to distract a group of zombies that are on a path heading straight for us. We should go while they are gone."

"And you want to take one of those." I pointed to a line of jeeps behind him.

"What? We aren't going to be able to just walk out of here."

"Are we going to have to cut the gas lines again?" I asked.

"Nah, I like these people. We are just going to have to get a good solid head start."

"Sounds good Ruff." I sighed and stood up. I was strangely looking forward to getting back on the road with Ruff and Devin. It was weird not being able to see them every minute of the day.

"You get some sleep now then. And I will see you in a few hours." Ruff stood up and pushed me forward towards my barracks.

I barely got any sleep that night. I was too excited. I don't know why I was excited about going back out into no man's land but I was. I got out of bed and looked over at Claire's cot. It was empty she was probably out doing some weird God thing.

"Nice knowing you God." I laughed quietly and made my way to the vehicle depot. Ruff and Devin were already there standing beside one of the jeeps. "Hey guys." I whispered while jogging up to them.

"Hello Jennifer."

"Oh no not her!" I cried out. Devin immediately clapped his hand over my mouth again. "Get off me." I said as I pushed him away. "Why is she coming?"

"Because she wants too." Ruff said carefully closing one of the doors after he loaded up with food and water.

"I am God, Jennifer. I will never leave you. I will be with you forever." I swear that little girl spoke like a 90 year old woman sometimes. Not sometimes all the time.

"Come on Jen, you can sit by me." Devin suggested.

"What if I don't want to sit by you." I groaned.

"You know you want to sit by me."

"No I don't know that."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"NO I DON'T!"

"Will you two knock it off and help me out here? God you get up front and steer. Jen and Devin you guys can help me push now let's get moving before we get caught." Ruff ordered.

"You shouldn't call her God. It only encourages her." I mumbled as I steadied myself next to Ruff.

"It is just a name, Jen." Devin lined up beside me and began to push the backend of the jeep forward.

"I don't care if it is just a name we still shouldn't call her that." I began to push too and the jeep slowly started to move. Then Ruff with his mighty one hand started pushing and the whole jeep lurched forward under his pressure.

"Geez Ruff you are going to dent it." Devin joked.

"Shut up and push kid." So we kept pushing until we were out of the city or town or Amazonian village, whatever you want to call it.

"My arms are about to fall off. Can't we just start driving now?" I complained dropping my arms as Devin and Ruff continued to push the jeep along. I wasn't helping much anyway; they could have done it by themselves.

"And risk them hearing the engine? No we keep pushing until we get to the road." Ruff instructed.

"That'll take forever! How come little Miss God gets to drive and we are pushing." I went on falling back in step.

"Because she is God. Duh." Devin was trying to be funny. Let's see how funny he thinks it is when I clock him upside the head. Ruff started scolding Devin when I heard a funny sound coming from behind us.

"Did you guys hear that?" I whispered to Ruff and Devin.

"Hear what? The ghosts? You do know this place is haunted right." Devin snickered.

"Shut up Devin I am serious."

"I didn't hear anything." Ruff answered. If Ruff didn't hear anything then it was good enough for me so I kept marching behind them and the jeep. Then I heard the noise again it was almost like a shuffling sound followed by a dull roar.

"Tell me you are hearing that!" I turned around to see if I could see anything in the darkness.

"She is losing it." Devin whispered to Ruff but he did it loud enough so that I could hear him. If the zombies don't get him I will.

"I'm not kidding! Someone or something is following us!"

"Oh you mean like that zombie right behind you!" Devin screamed and pointed behind me. I screamed and ran to get behind Ruff. I wasn't scared or anything, Ruff just has more experience with this sort of thing. It was the logical way to go.

"Hahaha! I can't believe you fell for that!" Devin was cracking up.

"That wasn't funny you asshole!"

"Oh calm down Jenny I was just trying to calm the mood." Devin continued to laugh.

"Don't call me Jenny." I growled.

Devin sobered up immediately. "Jen, don't look behind you just run over here."

"I'm not falling for that again. What do you think I am stupid?" Apparently I was stupid.

"Jen you don't have time just run over here." Devin's voice was calm but I was sure he was going to break at any second.

"Oh no is there a big scary zombie behind me?" I mocked.

"Jen run!" Ruff shouted.

Turns out there was a big scary zombie behind me.

"Ah!" I screamed as it jumped on me. I fell onto my back. Instinctively I put my arms up for protection and caught his shoulders. The zombie's tongue was dangling out of its mouth and dripping blood all over my face. "Get him off of me! I don't want to die!"

The zombie pressed all his weight onto my arms as he wriggled his face closer to mine. His teeth snapped together dangerously. This was it. I was going to die. Then thanks to a miracle all the weight was gone. Ruff had grabbed the zombie and flung him a few feet away.

"It's about time!" I shouted as Devin helped pull me up. Ruff stood waiting for the zombie to get back up. They were going to fight. "Go Ruff! Show him who is boss!" I cheered.

"He is going to lose his other hand." Devin sighed.

I scoffed. Like he even needs both hands. Ruff is a badass. The zombie staggered towards Ruff slowly. A loud gun shot rang out and Devin and I ducked down. By the time I had looked back up again the zombie was dead and Erica was standing in front of the jeep's headlights.

"Hello Erica, we were just out for a little stroll." I coughed.

"Don't give me that crap. If you wanted to leave you should have just told me." Erica walked past me and up to Ruff. Uh, I did tell them I wanted to leave but does anyone listen to Jennifer? No.

"I would have given you a better truck at least." Erica said to Ruff.

"That's alright we can make do. We just didn't want to offend anyone. Your group has been so good to us." Ruff shook her hand with his.

"We aim to please." Erica gave a faint smile. "If you all need anything further from us don't hesitate to come back and ask. Of course I am going to ask you not to tell anyone of our little hiding place."

"Scout's honor." Devin raised his hand up. Erica rolled her eyes and him and turned back to Ruff. "Good luck out there. Hopefully we will meet again."

"Hope so." Ruff smiled. "Good luck to your ladies as well."

"Watch out for more zombies. We lead a bunch away but there could be stragglers."Erica nodded and motioned for Jane to follow and they disappeared into the night.

"What a woman." Ruff sighed watching them go.

"Gross Ruff is in love." Devin groaned.

"Does this mean we can drive now?"


	12. Chapter 12

"AHHHHHH!" Devin laughed and jerked the steering wheel hard to the right.

"Shit!" I shouted falling back into my seat next to Claire. If I wasn't wearing a seatbelt I would have been thrown out. I don't know how it happened but Devin managed to talk Ruff into letting him drive. "That's it! I'd rather walk to Abilene before I let this lunatic drive another mile!"

"Calm down Jen, this is a jeep it won't turn over. Watch." Devin made another sharp turn on the empty road spinning into a doughnut. "That was fun huh?"

"Ruff hold me back because I am going to kill him." Then I jumped forward, too bad I forgot my seatbelt was still on. Damn it.

"Devin, we are not trying to draw attention to ourselves. Besides if you break this vehicle I am going to break your neck." Ruff grunted. Haha Devin.

"Fine you bunch of babies." Devin sulked and drove on. He was going at the supersonic speed of 20 miles an hour. I knew he was doing this to piss me off but I wasn't going to take the bait. Instead I turned to look at Claire.

"Claire." I said at first trying to get her attention. The little brat ignored me.

"Clllllllaaaaaire." I said again more slowly this time. She still ignored me. What a jerk.

"God!" I said so suddenly I think Ruff even jumped a little.

"What is it?" Claire finally decided to grace me with her conversation.

"How are you doing?" I asked.

She gave me and odd look and then went back to ignoring me. Geez I don't know what her problem is I was just trying to be nice. "Hey, I asked you a question."

"I know. I heard you." Claire responded. She wasn't even looking at me. My mom told me you should look at someone in the eye when you are talking. My mom. We were only a couple hours outside of Abilene. Hang on mom, hang on.

"Well then how come you didn't answer me?"

"Because she's a beeyotch!"Devin joked. I forcefully kicked the back of his seat. "Ow! What the hell was that for?!"

"You called her a beeyotch!"

"You call her names all the time you hypocrite!"

"Well that's different, I am allowed too. Don't talk about her like that or I will clock you." I said smugly. It was true, I was the only one allowed to talk to Claire in such a manner. If anyone else did it they would have to deal with me and I would promptly refer them to Ruff from there.

"I do not condone violence in my name Jennifer." Claire sighed loudly.

"Shut up Claire this doesn't involve you!" I said putting my hand up to silence her. Ruff started to chuckle. "What is so funny?"

"You kid."

"I don't get it?"

"You treat God here like your little sister." Ruff started to laugh again. Oh my real God he was right.

"No I don't"

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do." Claire cut in before Ruff could respond again. Damn she was a sneaky one. "Now what is your plan for making it through Ballinger and Winters?"

Crap I forgot we'd go through a couple small towns. Shouldn't be too bad though. I glanced around the jeep. There were a lot of spaces a zombie could slip its head or arm in. I started the re-think the whole 'let's steal a jeep' thing.

"Well you are God right? So you just tell us what to do and we'll do it." I smiled sweetly at her.

"I already told you I don't interfere with mortals."

"Then why are you still here?!" I practically shouted. Ruff gave me the evil eye. You know the one that says 'shut the hell up'.

"We are going to take it slow." Ruff explained.

"Can I have a gun?" I asked. I would feel a lot safer with a gun right now.

"Jennifer! No, we are taking it slow." Ruff explained.

"I can take it slow with a gun! Please Ruff just give me a gun and I swear I will shut up."

"Don't give her a gun she might accidentally blow my head off." Devin protested. I got news for you Devin, it won't be an accident.

"Fine." Ruff handed me a small pistol. "Don't shoot it unless I tell you too. Ballinger in ten miles."

"Whoa, how did you know that?" I asked totally amazed at Ruff's navigational skills. He doesn't even live in Texas.

"I just read the sign." Ruff pointed behind us. Normally in a situation like that I would feel stupid and ashamed of myself, however I have been feeling stupid pretty much since the day of the outbreak so I guess I am just used to it by now.

"Oh check it out there is one." Devin pointed over the dashboard to a zombie who was standing in the middle of the road.

"You aren't going to do what I think you are going to do are you?" I asked cautiously. But of course he was going to do what I thought he would. He slammed the accelerator down despite Ruff's and my loud screaming protests. That didn't stop Devin.

I glanced down at the speedometer out of curiosity; he was going ninety when we hit the zombie person. That was a horrible experience. I was really worried the body would fall through the open roof and onto my lap. Luckily that didn't happen. Instead as the body flew over my head I could feel something drip down on my face. I didn't know what it was except that it was probably body fluid.

"You two okay back there?" Ruff turned around and Devin slowed back down.

"Yeah…do I have something on my face?" I pointed to where I felt the liquid substance running down my cheek.

"Shit hold on. Devin stop the car." Ruff ordered. Ruff immediately braked.

"What is it?" I was confused. Why were we stopping when we were so close?

"Stop opening your mouth." Ruff instructed and pulled out a handkerchief. "Don't move a muscle."

I sat there obediently as he wiped whatever was on my face off. "That could have been bad."

"What? I don't get it?" I asked running my hand over where the liquid had been.

"It spit on you Jen." Ruff threw the handkerchief out onto the road. "If the bite can turn you, getting some of their spit in your system could do something similar."

"Damn." I leaned back. I was totally unaware of how close I had been to possible death. Once again Ruff came to my rescue. Thank God for that man.

"You are welcome." Claire sighed so that only I could hear her.

"You have got to stop doing that." I whispered. "Get out of my head!"


	13. Chapter 13

"Well. Here we are." Ruff pointed across the dashboard and up the road. "This next curve will take us into town."

"I don't see anything." Devin sounded like he was complaining that there was nothing around to KILL us. What an idiot.

"Drive around slow." Ruff instructed as Devin approached the bend in the road.

"Um Ruff? Maybe you should switch with Devin." I would feel a lot more comfortable if he did.

"Don't worry Jen. I got this." Devin smiled as we came around the curve and into the outskirts town. We passed by one of those Sonic Drive Thrus and Devin made a lame joke about stopping for some cherry limeades. We sped up until we were in the downtown district. That's when the jeep jerked to a sudden halt.

"Uh oh." Devin squeaked looking around.

"Mother of mercy." Ruff gasped

"Holy shit! We are going to die!" I nearly shouted. Claire snapped her head sideways to glare at me only I wasn't too worried about Claire at the moment. Because before us it seemed as though all 4,000 of Ballinger's citizens were lining the downtown streets doing whatever zombies do when they are not eating flesh.

"What are you doing? Quick go around before they see us!" I pushed on Devin's seat hard.

"Where the hell do you expect me to go? The residential area? Because that's a good idea!"

"And you think this is a good idea!?" I gestured to the hundreds of zombies only yards ahead of us who still had not noticed we were present.

"This is your call Ruff." Devin looked at the older man. I looked at him too and I know for a fact Claire was trying to gage his expression because she wanted to know too.

"The way I see it is, this is a Jeep…" Ruff thought out loud. I knew what was coming and fell back into my seat with a groan. "And Jeeps are pretty good and driving over things…"

"Ruff, I like the way you think." Devin grinned and shifted gears. "Hang on tight everyone. This is going to get messy."

There he goes with the cheesy lines again. He probably thinks he sounds cool. I wrapped my hand tight around the hand grip. Claire crossed her arms and didn't bother to hang on to anything, she was crazy, and so I did her a favor and held her forearm with my free hand and placed the gun in my lap. She didn't seem to notice but I was not going to have her flying out of the Jeep because she was an idiot.

Devin would probably start crying if that happened.

The zombies knew we were there the moment we hit the first group. They were standing idly in the middle of the street blocking both lanes. The Jeep ripped through them some went flying out to the side and others fell under the wheels. I could almost hear their bones snapping but there was a lot of noise, which was mostly me screaming. The zombies that were on the sidewalks or gutters of street stumbled toward us Devin laughed loudly at them.

"Devin watch out for the other cars!" I shouted as I released my grip on the handle. I really shouldn't have done that. As Devin swerved to avoid a collision with the abandoned cars piled up in the center of the road I felt myself flying. I hit the ground and shook my head but I was too dazed to see straight. He really should have seen those cars.

My ears were ringing and I thought I could hear Devin and Ruff screaming. It sounded like they were screaming from miles away. I held my head in my hands for a second and looked down at the cracked pavement. Pavement. Pavement. Why was I on the pavement?

"Jen get up!"

Get up? Why would I need to get up? Oh yeah. I forgot about them. I looked around at the zombies stumbling towards me from all sides. Yup, I'm going to die.

"Get inside Jen! Behind you!" I looked over to the Jeep where Devin was trying to spin around and come back for me. Ruff was standing on his seat trying to shoot at the zombies attempting to swarm them. I swung my head around to the building behind me. "Run!" they were still screaming at me.

I sprinted into the building and slammed the door. Well that would have been great if the door wasn't made of glass and the huge windows facing the street. The zombies outside began to pound on the glass as hard as they could. Then I heard a loud moan coming from behind me. I wasn't the only one in the room. A rather large man wearing a dirty trucker hat stepped out of the shadow from the corner.

I recoiled in disgust. I don't know how his head was still upright because all the flesh covering his neck had been ripped off. I'm no doctor but I think I could see his spinal cord. He moaned and lurched forward. I jumped back and frantically scanned the room for a weapon or anything. A beer bottle was sitting on the counter.

I had always wanted to try this. I grabbed the bottle and smashed the end on the hard counter top like they do in the movies. The whole bottle smashed in my hand leaving only the neck. "That did not have the desired effect."

The zombie took another step forward so I threw the useless bottle neck at him. It smacked him square in the forehead and if I had ever tried that shot again I would have never made it. His head snapped back causing his already weak neck bones to crack. He growled loudly at the ceiling and tried to look around but he couldn't because the back of his skull was now resting along his spine.

I would have laughed but:

I am not Devin.

And

The windows just broke.

Oh shit the windows just broke. Glass shattered around the room and zombies began to climb through the window. I saw the Jeep pull up outside but there was no way I would be able to get passed all these dead freaks without being bit.

"Get to the roof!" Ruff pointed up in the air. Yeah easier said than done Ruff how the hell am I going to get to the roof?

I turned my back on all the zombies and ran into the next room. The door was a swinging door so it would not stop the dead guys. At least this room had stairs. I shot up the stairs as soon as the first few zombies started to come through the second door.

There were a bunch of rooms upstairs so I just ran into the first one off the landing. I shut the wooden door behind me and twisted the lock. I made it. They won't know I am in here. I'm safe. I started to sigh with relief but just as I was about to a loud bang came on the door from the other side. How in the hell did they know I was in here?!

I grabbed one of the chairs in the room and threw it at the window. After I was done vandalizing the window I climbed through it. I do not know why I came up with the brilliant idea to climb out the window of a second story building with zombies below me and behind me but all I can say is that thank the Lord the building had an awning.

When I was a kid whenever I saw an awning I always wanted to jump on it you know? They always looked like awesome slides to me. I jumped on it now and was just praying that it would support my weight. It did but now I had to worry about sliding off. I readjusted my feet constantly to keep from sliding off the edge.

"Jennifer?"

I peeked over the edge to the Jeep right below me. "Ruff get back I found her!" Devin shouted and pointed up to me. Ruff ran back out the Jeep and looked at me too. I smiled sheepishly as I slipped down a little more.

"How did you get up there?" Ruff asked.

"Oh you know…just the usual." I said sarcastically. "I don't mean to rush you guys or anything, but I am kind of in a lot of danger right now."

"How many are in there?" Devin asked shooting at the zombies getting to close to the Jeep.

"Give me a second Devin, and I will go back in and count them up for you. This really isn't as easy as it looks!"

I heard a loud crash inside the room and instantly knew the door had given in. "We are coming in after you. Just stay where you are." Ruff directed me.

"That's suicide there are too many! I'll just jump!" I said as I judged the distance to the ground.

"You can't jump! You are a chicken about everything!" Devin pointed out. Silly Devin.

"Thanks for the encouragement you asshole." I couldn't help but slip a little more down the awning. I drew in a sharp breath because I was almost certain I was going over that time. There was a roar as one of the zombies inside started to crawl through the broken window. I screamed and it fell on the awning only to roll off seconds later.

A couple more followed the first one they both slid off too. On the ground Ruff and Devin were fighting back a crowd as well as the falling zombies. Claire was looking up at me thoughtfully I wanted to start yelling at her for some help but I was too scared. More zombies were coming through the window and I could feel the awning starting to cave in. It couldn't handle all the weight being put on it.

To my horror one seemed to figure out had to stay on long enough to crawl towards me on her stomach. She was snapping her teeth and flaring her nostrils as she pulled herself closer by clawing at the fabric with her freakishly long fingernails. "Ruff!" I screamed but neither he nor Devin could hear me over their own gunshots.

I was too afraid that if I moved any the fabric would rip and I would fall with the other zombies in a giant pile of mashing teeth. I reared my leg back and kicked the zombie lady as hard as I could in the face. Her teeth somehow got caught on my shoelace. Her pupils dilated as she smelled my blood, I was pretty sure I had a few seconds before having my flesh ripped into by this woman. I pulled my leg back and gave one last hard, desperate kick.

The woman rolled over on her back and slid off finally. I don't know how much I could keep this up. I looked up in dread as the other zombies were finding their balance. The fabric was most defiantly bending inwards. It was threatening to slide me right into their arms. I had to jump and I had to do it now.

"I'm jumping!" I screamed at the top of my lungs and let go. Ruff spun around in an instant and caught me with his arm around my stomach. The air was forced out of my body but Ruff didn't wait for me to catch my breath he just threw me into the Jeep on top of Claire.

"Drive Devin!" He roared and jumped onto the guard rail. I lay on the back seat with my legs draped over Claire's lap. She watched me as I grasped for my breath. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my abdomen.

"You made it." Claire had the ghost of a smile on her face.

I could only nod. No thanks to her.


	14. Chapter 14

My dad told me once that God works in mysterious ways. That was about a week before he left my mom and me. At first I was mad at God because I thought that it was His fault my dad had ran out on me; it had to be because my dad loved us, he would never leave unless it was something real important.

Then a few years later I saw my dad again on a crowded bus with a woman and a little boy. He didn't even recognize me when I walked past him to get off the bus he looked so happy with his new family. At night sometimes I would hear my mom crying and I wondered what my dad was doing at that instant. Did he know what he did to her? What he did to me? After that day I came to a realization, it wasn't God's fault that my dad left because God doesn't do _anything_. And Claire was a prime example of my thesis.

"You…could…have helped me." I said as I continued to gasp for breath on top of Claire in the back seat. Devin was driving away from the city quickly.

"I knew you would be fine." Claire rolled her eyes and pushed my legs off her. "And you are fine, see how I work?"

"Claire. You are pissing me off again." I leaned my head back against the seat. Ruff pulled on Devin's shoulder and told him to pull over.

"Why are we stopping?" I asked. Ruff didn't speak as he opened the door, I couldn't help but notice he was pulling his gun out again.

"I need you to get out of the car Jen." He said stopping beside me.

"Okay, but do you really need your gun?" I wasn't quite sure what he was getting at but I trusted Ruff enough I suppose. I slid through the window and Ruff grabbed me by the wrist.

"Hey!" Devin shouted in outrage jumping out of the jeep as well. Claire sat composed in the back seat with wide eyes.

"Take it easy Ruff!" I allowed him to drag me into the grass beside the road. Ruff ignored mine and Devin's protest as he silently scanned my body with his eyes. After what seemed like an eternity he took a deep sigh of relief.

"Can I have my arm back now?" I asked. He nodded and I jerked my arm back. Devin was fuming next to me.

"What was that all about? You can't just grab Jen like that!"

"I was checking her for bites; we all could have been in danger."

"You could have just asked her you know, instead of manhandling her like that!" Devin moved to stand in front him me. His puffed his chest out and did the best he could to stand toe to toe with Ruff.

"Kid, I have had about enough of you!" Ruff suddenly roared causing Devin and me both to jump back a little. "This is your fault in the first place! If you hadn't been driving like a manic she would have been in the Jeep the whole time!"

"_You're_ the one who told me to in the first place!" Devin retaliated.

"Because I trusted you to be responsible, something that you are obviously incapable of!"

"Yeah well, I may not be perfect but at least I admit it! You're convinced that everything you say is right and when you screw up royally you can't face up to it so you explode on everyone!" Devin seemed to strike a nerve with Ruff. We weren't around any zombies but I feared for Devin's life, and I wondered if maybe I should be standing in front of him instead of the other way around.

"You better watch your step. If it weren't for me you'd be dead." Ruff started to reach for his gun. I don't know why everyone had suddenly popped out of character but I assumed it was because of all the stress that comes with running for your life on a daily basis.

"That zombie should have bit off my than just you hand." Devin growled pulling out his gun too. Okay I guess this was my cue.

"Guys, stop." I went to stand between them. "This is crazy, put your guns away."

"Jennifer stay out of this. It will all work out." Claire called to me slowly.

"Shut up Claire. You are not helping." I growled back to her.

"No, not after what he did to you Jen." Devin raised his gun and so did Ruff.

"Don't you realize what you two are doing? What you are saying?" I raised my arms. "We can't just fall apart now. We all are an important part on this team." Well except for me.

"She is right." Claire was _finally_ giving me some back up. I glanced over to Ruff. "You promised." I whispered.

Ruff blinked a couple of times before lowering his weapon in defeat. "Fine, but I would only do this for the two of you." He looked up at Claire.

Devin remained stubborn as always holding his gun up and pointed at Ruff's forehead. "Devin, please." I went to grab his face in my bloodied hands. "Drop it?"

"Jennifer…what he did…I can't." Devin tried to avoid my gaze. I almost had to roll my eyes.

"We need to go know. I want you to sit by me. Can you do that?" I asked him. He looked back into my eyes and I looked back at him expectantly.

"Yeah, let's go." He lowered his weapon and I think everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Move is squirt." He pointed to Claire. She smiled brightly and climbed into the front passenger seat.

"Looks like I'll be driving again." Ruff joked as he climbed into the driver's seat, and I might have laughed if he had said that twenty minutes earlier.

I sat down next to Devin and he held my hand. As we drove away I thought of how close we had all come to dying back there and then I thought that we still had to make it through the city Winters. I shuttered.


	15. Chapter 15

It was less than hour after the incident Ruff pulled up to the beaten up blue and white sign that said "Welcome to Winters." I think it was obvious to everyone that we needed a plan to get through town this time, even though the city of Winters was considerably smaller than Ballinger. Still, I don't think I could survive another accident like that.

"Listen up." Ruff said raising his voice for the first time since we last stopped. "I am going to barrel through. "Everyone is going to hold onto something and they are going to hold on to it tight." Devin squeezed my hand more tightly. "Is everyone ready?"

"Ready."

"Just go."

Ruff slammed his foot down and we went speeding towards the city. The smell was even worse when it was flying through your nostrils. The dead were only a blur. Ruff was swerving around parked cars like an expert. Meanwhile Devin and I slid around in the back against each other but never letting go of our grips on each other and the handles.

Something ran out into the road ahead of us. It was moving much too fast to be a zombie. Ruff swore and swerved around. The jeep screeched to a stop and rocked dangerously. It was a person, not a zombie, a living human being, and she was pleading with us to stop.

"Come on lady get in!" Ruff screamed at her.

"She's bit!" Devin shouted. "Go!" I looked closer at the lady waddling towards the jeep. There was a large gash in her shoulder; the wound was effectively drenching her entire arm in scarlet blood. I think I'm going to be sick.

"Fuck." Ruff backed the jeep up and sped away from her. I can still hear her anguished screams in my nightmares. For someone to make it that far, for that long, then to see your only chance of survival speed away from you…its heart wrenching. I wasn't even sure that she was bit; maybe she just hurt her arm escaping. If she hadn't been bitten then we were all responsible for her death.

Ruff sped around a group of zombies. A few of them he didn't clear and they flung into my side of the jeep. I screamed but the air rushing by drowned me out for the most part. Devin pulled me deeper into his chest. Ruff spun the steering wheel violently and the two zombies fell back onto the road. He kept speeding once we left the city and didn't slow down until we were ten more miles out. He pulled over and I had flashbacks from last time.

"Are you two alright?" Ruff asked and when both Devin and I nodded he continued. "I think it would be best if we stayed put for the night and headed into Abilene tomorrow morning. We've had a long day." Ruff sighed not looking at anything but the steering wheel. I couldn't agree with him more.

"And what if those zombies try coming after us? And those inbred rednecks are still after us!" Devin argued. I wanted to tell him to shut up but I didn't want hurt his feelings. I felt that by forgiving Ruff I was betraying Devin and I did not like it at all.

"I think I have almost died enough for today." I sighed glancing over at Devin. He didn't have a reaction. Claire turned around from the front seat completely unscathed. "We are going to need our rest for tomorrow." She announced. The more Claire agrees with me the more I start to like her.

"It's agreed then." Ruff drove the jeep into a field behind some trees. "We should be alright here, I don't think zombies are smart enough to notice us here and I don't think that gang is any smarter than any zombie."

I cracked a smile at his small joke. The light was fading and a light wind whipped across the grass. If I wasn't worried about zombies eating me it would have been a real nice environment. I would always drive past areas like this but I never really stopped to realize how beautiful they were.

"I need to drain the main vein." Devin successfully ruined the atmosphere.

"Actually so do I. Will you two ladies be alright for a couple of minutes?"

I shrugged back at Ruff. "What's the worst that could happen?" He smirked and walked around the trees with Devin. I think we all know that something really bad could happen in a really short time, but I guess it comes with the territory and all of us were just too tired to care.

"Jennifer." Claire snapped me out of my thoughts. She was standing in front of me with her arm extended and her palm upwards. "Take my hand."

"Uh, do you need to go to the bathroom too?" I asked timidly and grasped her hand. Her palm wasn't sweaty like mine and Devin's had been.

"No, I want to show you something." Claire led me further away from the jeep and deeper into the field.

"Claire maybe this isn't such a good idea. I think we need to stay near the jeep and the guns."

"We don't need either." She explained. She stopped abruptly and turned to me. "Sit down." This kid can do something with her eyes and it's almost like hypnotizing. I sat down in the dried grass, which wasn't incredibly comfortable. She sat down beside me in the dark. "Look up."

I titled my head up to the dark. Tiny bulbs of light began poking through. "Yeah Claire, they are called stars. You know? Big giant gas balls and sometimes they explode." I made an explosion replication with my hands, sound effects included.

"But they are more than that Jennifer."

"If you are going to start with that God crap again I'm going back to the jeep." I started to stand but she pulled my arm back down.

"They represent everyone who has ever died."

"Claire that is stupid. Science proves that-"

"They serve as a reminder. Not everyone remembers the loved ones that they lost, but they are always there. When you go into a city all the lights block out the stars at night but that doesn't mean they aren't still there. Do you understand?"

I fought really hard not to roll my eyes. "Where do you come up with this stuff Claire?" I asked sincerely.

"You have to choose whether or not you want to come up with anything. It's just something you have to believe it."

I nodded and took a deep breath. "Hey, Claire…what happened to you? Before we picked you up I mean."

"Good night Jennifer." And with that Claire stood up to walk back to the jeep. I felt really alone at that instant. I looked back up at the stars; one just above me was growing stronger as it got darker. It had felt like something at dropped to the bottom of my stomach but I had no explanation for it.

* * *

The next morning we pulled onto the stretch of road that would lead us into Abilene. The road was nothing but lines and lines of cars. It was a good thing we were in a jeep because we were off roading along the side. Warning signs were posted saying things like "Turn back." "Infected Ahead." And "City Lost."

Even with all the warnings, and all the evidence from the rest of the world, I always held onto the belief that Abilene was fine. Zombies weren't there. It was safe. When we arrived over the hill into the outskirts I finally saw how wrong I was.

I reached for the door handle on the jeep. I could have just climbed over the door completely but I was moving deliberately slow. It was almost like as long as I stayed in the jeep with Ruff, Devin, and Claire none of this would be happening. But it was happening. I had come so far. We had come so far. For what?

Abilene was on fire. It didn't take a genius to know that the entire city was infected. I could see the zombies off in the distance mulling around. My mom was surely dead and it would be suicide to go in and look for her. I knew that. I knew it all along but now it was real.

My right foot hit the pavement followed by my left. I could see the hospital from where I was. Smoke was pouring out the open windows. Then there were sheets hanging out some of them, billowing in the wind like ghosts. I took another couple steps forward towards the city. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Devin make a move to reach out to me but Ruff pulled him back in. I was grateful for that.

I kept walking until I was further away from the jeep and then I fell to my knees and just started screaming as loud as I could and then I balled my fists and slammed them into the concrete as hard as I could, ignoring the intense pain that was shooting up my arms with every blow.

Devin and Ruff sat quietly in the jeep while Claire climbed out. I was still screaming and crying my eyes out. The one thing that had pushed me so far to live was gone. The one thing that was making it worth it to live was gone. My mom was gone. My home was gone. The world was gone.

I sat back up and covered my face with my now bloody hands. I felt a hand gently trace across my shoulders. I didn't shrug it off I just kept crying into my hands.

"She is safe now." Claire whispered into my ear calmly. "She is safe."

A few days ago if the little girl had said something like that to me I would have decked her. I would have ripped her hair out and spit on her bleeding, sobbing body afterwards. But it wasn't a few days ago and her words gave me some peace. I was thankful for having her sitting next to me.

She reached her arm to cover me and I fell into her hug gratefully. "I can't do this anymore." I whispered.

"You have been doing this for long enough to know that you can do this. You already have." Claire began stroking my hair. She pulled my head back to look at me in the eyes. In that moment I could have sworn her eyes flashed to a different color.

"Are you sure?" I asked. Of course she wasn't sure, Claire thinks she is God. Her brain is loopy she isn't sure about anything. But I asked anyway, if not only to make myself feel better.

"Have I ever led you astray?" Claire stood up and reached her hand out for me. "We will need to leave this place."

I remember staring at her hand for the longest time. I took one last look back at the city I once called home. Then I looked up to the sky. If the world wasn't in the process of ending it would have been a beautiful day. It was like up there it didn't matter if zombies and gangs were lurking behind every corner.

I grasped Claire's hand and she helped to pull me up. My blood was dripping down her fingertips but she didn't flinch or even give notice to the fact. I felt so weak walking back to the jeep. Ruff and Devin were staring intently at me. It was almost like they were accusing me of something. Claire squeezed my hand as if she was giving me a reason to keep walking and not to run away which is exactly what I wanted to do.

As I sat down Devin didn't say he was sorry about what happen. He didn't say anything, for once, and I was grateful for that too. Ruff skipped over the issue completely and merely grunted. "Where to now?"

"North, you'll be safer north."Claire folded her hands in her lap and stared straight forward. The jeep lurched forward and Ruff pulled into a u-turn. I didn't turn around to see the city one last time. Instead I inspected the cuts I got from fighting with a stationary object.

Everyone was quiet for the next few hours. When we were running out of gas Ruff decided to pull over at an abandon gas station.

"Alright." He sighed pulling out his gun. "Me and the boy are going to see if we can turn the pumps on somehow. You two stay here and holler if anything should happen." With that Ruff and Devin got out and started over to the small shack. This place had probably been shut down for ten years before the outbreak.

"I'm going to stretch my legs." I said before I climbed out of the jeep. Claire didn't say anything but she watched me walk around the building carefully. When I was out of sight I began kicking the side of the building while releasing a string of curse words. I stopped and rested my head against the wall and took a deep breath.

I came back around the corner to see Claire on the ground with a bur lack sack tied around her head. "Cla-" I started to screamed but something covered my mouth and jerked me back. Someone was covering my mouth and it wasn't Devin or Ruff.

The man dragged me over to where Claire was on her stomach in the dirt. Two other men were pointed into the building where Ruff and Devin were working. They had guns I knew what they were going to do.

I decided I'd have to be the hero again. We really do have terrible luck at gas stations. I opened my mouth as wide as I could and bit down hard. I could feel blood pooling in my mouth and it was disgusting. I don't know how zombies do it. The man screamed and threw me down. "Devin! Run! Ruff they are coming run!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I was pulled back up by my hair and then punched in the face. I had never been in a fist fight before but I always thought that I would be able to hold my own in one. Guess I was wrong. My blood and the man's blood mixed together in my mouth. I was on the ground trying to spit it all out. Then I heard gunfire.

I looked up to see Devin running through the front door only to be gunned down a few steps later. With four neat holes in his chest he staggered forward and then fell on his face. Ruff was nowhere to be seen. My eyes were wide open in pain and terror. Devin's body lay only feet away. One of the men who had shot him gave him a swift kick to the ribs.

"Yup, he is dead." The man chuckled and holstered his gun.

"No!" I screamed and tried to stand up but the guy behind me stepped on my back pinning me to the ground. Now I had dirt in my mouth too. Blood and dirt do not taste good; I would not recommend it to anyone by the way.

"Where is the other one?" The man growled at me.

I cleared my head and thought about what he was asking me. "There isn't another one. Just us and, the boy." I swallowed. I don't think I could have said Devin's actual name now that he was dead. The lunatic was dead.

"She says that's all of them." The man pulled me up and pulled a bag around my head.

"Well let's get these two back to Gage then. Maybe he'll be in a good mood today now that we got them."

I couldn't believe they found us. Those physco bikers actually found us. I sure as hell didn't want to meet Gage again. I struggled as they tried to put me in a vehicle. That's the last thing I remember before I was knocked out.


	16. Chapter 16

I woke up completely unaware of my surroundings. "Ruff? What's going on?" I felt someone kick me hard. I screamed out in pain. I had forgot, I was a prisoner and Ruff was not here. Devin wasn't here either. I pushed the picture of Devin's body lying on the ground out of my mind.

"Nice to see you awake Hun." A man chuckled and playfully slapped my cheek. We were in a small camping tent; the wind was making the sides of it smack me in the back of the head.

I pulled my face away. "Who are you?"

"I'm your escort." The man reached out to my face again just to piss me off more. I tried to bite him but he pulled his hand back just in time. "We won't have any of that young lady. You bite harder than a zombie." The man held up a bandaged hand, I guess he was the man I had bit earlier. Good.

"Where is Claire?" I tried to jerk towards the tent flap when I realized my hands were bound behind my back.

The man laughed coldly. "We aren't going to let you and your little friend go. You caused us a hell of a lot of trouble and Gage isn't too happy about that." The man reached out and touched my leg gently.

"Get off of me." I tried to say as boldly as I could but my voice was cracking anyway.

"Come on now, I've been lonely for a long time. The women here are old and batty." The man leaned closer like he was about to kiss me. His breath was worse than his body odor, if that was even possible. I mean I didn't smell like a basket of roses either but this man probably didn't shower weeks BEFORE the zombies showed up.

"I said stop!" I tried to kick my legs loose but they were tied too. The man threw back his head and laughed loudly.

"I-I'm warning you!" I stuttered.

He laughed again. "And who is going to stop me?" The man leaned forward again. I turned my head just as he landed a slobbery kiss all over my cheek. I almost threw up right there. "Come on girl be friendly with me." The man grabbed my chin and pulled my head straight.

"You're a sick fuck." I whispered and spit into his face.

"Son of bitch." The man sighed and wiped his face the without warning he slapped me hard against my cheek. "I guess we will have to do this the hard way." He growled and began to unbutton my jeans.

"Get the fuck off!" I screamed loudly still trying to recover from the blow. "No!"

But the man wasn't stopping. Why should he? He was right no one would come to stop him. Devin was dead, Ruff was God-knows where, and all my limbs were rendered useless. Well…almost all my limbs.

The man started to pull the jeans down my hips. While his head was bent I snapped my own head down as hard as I could. The man stumbled back and fell on his butt. My head was swimming and I was seeing stars for the next few seconds. I could feel blood dripping down my forehead. Head buts look a lot easier on T.V.

I blinked trying to get my sight back as the man howled in rage and stood up. Oh, shit this is it I thought. I flinched as he stalked toward me. I didn't want to see the blow that would finish me off.

"Adam!" I opened one of my eyes and looked toward the tent flap. Another man was standing there with a dirty smirk on his face.

"I am in the middle of something." Adam jerked a thumb to me in the corner.

"Yeah well Gage told you not to hurt either of them and what does it look like you are doing?" The other man pointed out. "Now he is never going to let us play. I suggest you get her over to Gage and come up with a cover story for why her head looks like it has been bashed in or else Gage is going to have yours bashed in too. If he doesn't the rest of us will."

As the man left Adam turned back to me, his face was contorted in a way I have never seen before. "You got lucky this time." He untied my legs and yanked my pants back up. He pulled me up by the arm. "If you try anything I'll shoot you."

"Yeah, that's me. Lady luck." I muttered. He kicked me in the back so I fell out of the tent and into the dirt. Other gang members around saw and started laughing like drunken donkeys.

"Keep pushing it. I wasn't kidding about shooting you."

Shoot me? Big deal I have been in way worse than this. Well I guess not really, all those other times I had someone to help me out but now I was alone. "Where is Claire?" I asked as Adam pushed me through a maze of tents, a few of the gang members paused to wolf-whistle as we walked past.

"You'll see your delusion little girlfriend in a few minutes." Adam gave me another hard push forward with his palm.

Okay no one calls Claire delusion except me! I was going to turn around and make a run for it but we stopped in front of a central tent first. "After you." Adam order and shoved me into the tent.

"Nice manners." I said sarcastically.

"You little brat!" Adam raised his hand to smack me again.

"Adam, she is right you know." Gage was sitting on his pillow throne. He looked different. Way different. I was shocked no one was shooting him because he looked just like a zombie. Open sores covered his body, which leaked blood and pus. He literally had no color in his flesh and we was a lot skinnier than last time. The long greasy hair I remembered him to have was falling out and his head had erratic bald patches.

"What the f-" I started to say loudly.

"You seem a little shocked by my appearance."

I couldn't even speak. I have seen a lot of disgusting things in the last few weeks but this top them all. Gage looked like a human-zombie hybrid. "This is what immunity looks like!" Gage raised his arms and gestured to his body. Yeah okay whatever you say physco.

I let my mouth go off without thinking first. "Are you freakin' INSANE?!" I shouted. "You look like you are killing yourself!" Which now that I think about it, that wouldn't have been such a bad thing.

Adam slammed his fist into my back causing me to fall on my knees in front of Gage. As if I didn't have enough bruising.

"Adam. Leave if you can't control yourself." Gage scolded. "Now what is your name?" He squatted down in front of me.

I drew back. "I'm not telling you anything you physco piece of-"

"Her name is Jennifer." A third man joined the tent. He threw Claire down next to me. Thank God she was okay at least. "The little one told me everything."

I looked at Claire in shocked. How could she betray me like that? Did they know that Ruff was still out there? How much had she told them?

"Who was with them? I remember another was with her."

"There was a boy. But he is dead." Adam snickered. My heart sunk further down my chest.

"You made sure he was dead?" Gage asked. Adam faltered under his gaze.

"Well-I mean we shot him. And he didn't get up so I reckon' he is dead…"

"Adam…do you remember me asking you to bring both back alive?"

"Well, yeah but-"

Gage punched Adam square in the face. It was like an instantaneous gesture that caught everyone in the tent off guard and let me tell you, I've never been so happy to see someone's block get knocked off like that.

Adam's head snapped backwards. "I'm not looking for excuses! Send out some men to go recover the body; I want to be sure he is dead. I want them back here with a report before we move camp."

Adam wiped the blood off his nose and nodded. "I'll get right on that."

"Excellent." Gage walked back up to his chair. "What to do with them now? I see it's obvious I can't leave the prisoners with you Adam."

"Let me have this one for the night Gage. I promise I will keep her alive!" Adam pulled my hair so that I fell back against him. Here comes the vomit train.

"I know you would." Gage folded his arms thoughtfully. "And you can do whatever it is you want to do when the time comes to kill her."

"Kill me! Don't you think it would be more sporting to give me a day head start? I'll take the girl with me, she can be quite annoying I'd be happy to get her off your hands." I half-tried because I knew there was no way that it was ever going to work.

Gage's face lit up. "Thank-you Jennifer, that will be enough. Stick her with Gloria. I don't really care what you do with the small one."

"Hey!" I shouted as they started dragging Claire out of the tent. "Let me go with her! Please just let me go with her. She is too little, she isn't right in the head as it is! She's a little girl you assholes!"

Adam hoisted me over his shoulder. "You can't do this to us! We are human beings!" Gage walked over and gripped my chin in the palm of his hand. His green veins were showing underneath his pale skin.

"Being a human is overrated. Don't you see? The zombies have all the power. I have all the power. You're worthless in your state, that's why you need to be exterminated."

"Yeah well what are you waiting for then?"

"Now that would be just too easy. You deserve to suffer like all the others. Those you saved, you didn't save them. They roam the hills even now; you condemned them to this life. When that group comes closer I will I give them their revenge."

I couldn't even say anything as Adam carried me back outside. Gage was right, how many people have died because I was alive?


	17. Chapter 17

You would think that staying with a woman named Gloria would be a lot better than staying in Adam's tent. At least that is what I thought when Adam dropped me off, but if you have ever been to high school you probably know that girls are more vicious than boys by a long shot. True, you're less likely to get physically abused by another woman but that won't stop them from stripping you down mentally.

In any case, I was dropped in front of a faded grey and red tent that was even smaller than Adams. The end of a sleeping bag was extending outside of the tent flap. Sitting on a stump nearby was a lady, who looked…well crazy. She had black and white hair sticking up in all directions, it's weird because she really didn't look old enough to have white hair, and she would blink her eyes rapidly in sets of three every few minutes.

"I don't want her." She said in a raspy voice to Adam. She jutted her chest out as she spoke to him.

"Too bad you got her. Orders from Gage."

"She is ugly." Gloria croaked. Uh, thanks, I'm sitting right here you know?

"She is a better sight than you."

Gloria reached out and grabbed my arm. Her long nails were cutting into my skin. "Are you coming over tonight?" She tried to flatten her hair to look more appealing. Yeah good luck with that lady.

Adam looked around and lowered his voice. "I told ya, I'm not coming back once we find some better girls, and we found some. So keep your damn mouth shut, I'll come back when they are dead or look like you." He whispered cruelly. Adam cast me a hateful look and then left in a hurry.

"What a dick." I said aloud as we watched him walk away. Without warning I get slapped again! This time it was Gloria.

"Shut your mouth you little whore."

I rubbed my cheek gingerly. I'll have you know madam, that I am abstinent.

"You sleep outside like a dog." She started instructing me. "Don't open your filthy mouth, if you find food you bring it to me. You're fat enough without it."

"Where is Claire?" I asked defiantly. Gloria slapped me again and while it hurt it was nothing like what Adam could do. I shook my head then looked at her again. "Where is my friend?" This time she grabbed my hair with both of her hands and pulled me down to the ground. Okay that hurt a little more. Gloria stood over me with pieces of my hair in her fists laughing.

"Such a pretty girl, where'd your hair go pretty girl?" She cackled. I reached up to feel the bloody bald patch she had left on the side of my head.

"Bitch!" I shouted and jumped up onto her. I was throwing punches as she screamed for help underneath me. I only got a couple hard blows into her face before someone was pulling me off. Whoever it was threw me into the side of the tent so that it collapsed on me. The metal poles collided with my rib cage.

"She's a murderer! You have to kill her before she kills me!" Gloria was shrieking at the men who were gathering around.

"Shut up you old hag. No one gives a damn." One of the men was talking to her as I groaned and tried to untangle myself from the tent.

"Son of a bitch Willy you should have let them go at it. I'd enjoy the entertainment since we can't touch her."

The man called Willy turned to his companion. "Yeah, well too bad, I'm not going to get punished because the camp whore killed the new girl."

She wouldn't have killed me. I was totally winning.

Gloria hissed. The second man shrugged. "Oh well I could always go find the other girl, hopefully someone hasn't beaten me to it."

"You touch her I swear I'll slit your throat!" I screamed in outrage. I made to charge at the man but I was still trapped around the tent and fell hard on the ground at Willy's feet.

"Gloria, you should tie this one up." Willy looked down at me curiously. He looked about the same age as Devin but a hell of a lot more muscular and he defiantly did not have the boyish looks and charms of Devin. Willy bent over and picked me up roughly. "I don't meet girls my age around here. Ones that aren't dead anyway."

"Shove it up your ass." I growled.

"Suit yourself." Willy shrugged. "Come on Jon let's go find some food." The two men walked off talking about food and I suddenly realized how hungry I was. My stomach growled loudly. Gloria looked fiercely at me.

"Fix my tent."

"Fuck off lady, fix your own tent. I'm going to find my friend." I spun around to run smack into Adam's chest.

"I had a feeling you'd try to pull something like that." He chuckled. "You're not going anywhere." He held up a frayed roped and pulled it tight in front of my face.

"You can't tie me up…" I said taking a step back.

"Watch me sunshine." Adam reached for me and that's when I took off running. You would think that I would learn and in hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea considering the fact that I was totally surrounded by the physco gang.

It took a total of about thirty-seconds for someone to tackle and hold me until Adam could catch up. "You're not too bright are you? Oh well I don't like my girls with brains."

"I'm going to ki-" I tried to say before a gag was shoved hard into my mouth. I choked as Adam bound my feet together.

"I like the way this is going." Adam winked and grabbed my arms. "Come on love. Not too much longer and we will be together." He started dragging me by the arms back to Gloria's tent. I didn't bother struggling I just let myself me cut along the rocks. I was fuming, they were laughing at me again, and I was covered in blood and dirt.

Gloria was fixing her tent when Adam tied my hands around the stump outside so it looked like I was hugging it. "Now you don't move from this spot." He said in fake seriousness. I narrowed my eyes to just glare at him. Wasn't much else I could do.

"No food for her Gloria." Adam ordered.

"Anything you say Adam dear." Gloria abandoned the tent to try and cozy up with Adam. Those two make the most disgusting pair to ever walk to the earth. I just rolled my eyes because there was no way in hell Gloria was going to give me food anyway.

Adam left and Gloria gave me another death-stare. I was already getting use to it. As she went back to fixing her tent she was mumbling about me. It's sad that she was so jealous of me. What did I have to be jealous of? I don't even have friends anymore. Claire is somewhere possibly being abused, Ruff was lost or worse, and Devin…he was dead.

Devin was dead.

Tears started coming to my eyes as I realized what was happening. They killed Devin and now they were going to kill Claire. Every time I blinked to clear my tears they just seemed to multiply until my face was like a river. I had to get it together so I could breathe through my nose. I was sitting in the most uncomfortable position known to man.

We should have stayed with the Amazon ladies. This is my entire fault; if I hadn't been delusional about my mom and going back into a major city we would all be safe and together. Ruff would be telling me and Claire a story and Devin would be giving his unwanted input on how the tale should be told.

It was dark now. Gloria retreated into her tent mumbled. I rested my head on the stump and it really didn't help with the pain that was shooting through my back. I just hope that Claire is doing better than I am. Besides the glow from a few campfires it was pitch dark. Gloria must have scared all the men away from her area because no one came by to bother me like I thought they would.

Someone was playing a guitar a few rows away and that gave me some comfort. I used my tongue and pushed the dirty rag out of my mouth so I could breath properly again. I tried pulling on the ropes but I was only making it worse. I groaned and put my head back down on the stump.

"I have to get out of here." I moaned quietly and pulled as hard as I could to release the knots.

"Jennifer."

I snapped up and looked around. Someone very familiar was calling my name. "Who's there?"

"Jennifer. It's me."

"Devin! You died! I saw you get shot!" I gasped as Devin stepped into the flickering light. He looked at me sadly. "What are you doing? Where's Ruff? Help me get out of these ropes, we have to go save Claire."

"I'm sorry Jen. I didn't want this for you." Devin was speaking in a weird tone.

"What? What are you talking about? Just help me!"

"I can't Jen."

"Devin! Help me!" I was practically screaming at him.

"Sorry." He said once more then turned back into the darkness.

"Devin?! Come back! Ruff? Guys come on…" But no one was answering me. I looked around in the dark in vain. Then I felt very cold.

"Wake up you lazy girl! You sleep to noon! Wake up! Wake up!" Gloria was throwing freezing cold water onto my face and chest.

I jumped and woke up. Devin had just been a dream. It was so real. I shivered as Gloria dumped another bucket of cold water on me. "I'm up! Stop it!" I spit out the water that got in my mouth.

"Don't yell at me insolent girl." Gloria threw the tin bucket and it bounced off my lower ribs. I swear no one in this entire camp knows how to express their feelings without hurting someone in the process.

Adam came striding up to us gleefully. "Have a nice stay sweetheart?"

"No, the room service is shit and the place is crawling with huge cockroaches."

"Haha, very funny." Adam cut the ropes, freeing me from the stump. "You're coming with me missy."

"What?! Gage said you are not to touch me! I will so tell on you!"

"Gage said I wasn't to touch you until it was time to kill you. And good news your number is up!"

"Bullshit! Let me talk to Gage!" I wrestled in his grasp as he lifted me over his shoulder yet again.

"Gage is…well he is a little under the weather. Don't worry we got a nice little crowd heading this way and you and the little one are the main course."

"Oh please tell me you are the appetizer."

Adam jostled me playfully on his shoulder. "Don't count on it baby. Oh hey look there is your little friend!"

I craned my neck around Adam big fat empty head to see Claire in torn clothing being pulled out of a tent by two other grown men. Her eyes were darkened, she was covered in both dry and fresh blood, and she looked exactly how I felt.

"You mother fuckers! I'm going to kill every one of you!" I went into a rage at seeing her like that. "Put me down you son of a bitch!"

Adam stopped the let the two men and Claire pass by us. She looked into my eyes and I stopped thrashing. Then she turned around and let herself be led into a van nearby.

"Your chariot my dear." Adam pointed to the same van. "We are going for a ride."


	18. Chapter 18

"Stop! Drop us right now!" I protested as Adam, Claire's escort, and a third gang member pulled us out of a mini-van. Adam untied my legs and used the rope to re-tie my hands.

"Suit yourself." Adam shrugged and slammed me into the ground. All the air rushed out of my body. I tried to roll over but Adam sat down on my legs. "You just sit there and think about what you've done." We were on the side of an abandoned road next to a grassy hill.

"I'm going to kill you." I threatened. I'm sure it didn't sound as scary as I was hoping it would, I was still gasping for air.

"I'd think you'd need to find a gun for that wouldn't you?" Adam laughed and attempted to tickle me. The other two men were dragging Claire over the high grassy hill and out of sight.

"What are they doing to her?" I struggled trying to pull out from under Adam. "Get your fat ass off me! What are they going to do up there?!"

"Don't worry you will get your chance. Let's just enjoy this time we have together before you die." Adam reached out and began to stroke my cheek. I flinched back. "Don't you fucking touch me." I whispered fiercely.

"I will do want I want." He traced around my bellybutton under my shirt. "And I'll do it when I want." He finished smiling wickedly as he glided his hand up against my skin. I thought briefly of what Devin would do if he was here. Adam would be dead that's for sure. And if Devin didn't kill him Ruff sure would have. God I relied on those two so much.

"Do yourself a favor and don't struggle." Adam whispered into my ear. I swear someone needs to get him a toothbrush or a breath mint or something. His body pressed even harder against mine. "You are so beautiful." He whispered into my ear then licked along my cheekbone. I turned my head to get away and I was also pretty sure I was about to puke.

A sound filled the air. It sounded like screaming but I never heard any human being scream that way. Even when I heard people screaming after being attacked by zombies, it was nothing like that. I came to a realization that it was Claire screaming just over the hill. "What are they doing to her?!" I bellowed trying to sit up.

Adam held my shoulders and slammed me back down. "They are giving her what she deserves. And I'm about to give you yours." He reached for his belt buckle.

I saw red. I couldn't feel anything at that point. I can't even accurately describe what I was feeling at that moment, looking up at Adam who was smirking and unzipping his pants. I remember that once in school I was told that when people are under severe amounts of stress of distress they are able to summon inhumane strength. You know, like when a mother's child is trapped under something heavy and she is able to lift it and save them? They use strength they didn't even know they had. And I think that is what happened. Either that or I just got incredibly lucky.

"I said, no." I growled through my clenched teeth. I slung my head around and deliberately crashed it into Adam's. It was a lot easier that time. He lost his balance mainly because his pants were around his ankles. I jumped to my feet and ran up the hill to where they took Claire. My hands were still tied and I didn't have a weapon but I didn't even hesitate.

"She's loose!" Adam was screaming behind me. He was probably trying to chase me but he wasn't smart enough to pull his pants up first.

I crested the hill and looked down to where the two men were standing. One was holding Claire by the arms while the other man held a bloody knife. He looked up me, smiled, and then plunged the knife back into Claire's stomach. She screamed in pain again.

He smiled? He smiled?! I roared out of rage and ran towards them. The man holding Claire dropped her and reached for his gun. The second man seemed unsure of himself as I sprinted straight for him. The other man shot three or four times at me but nothing hit. I found it odd that he was able to miss that many times at almost point blank range.

I changed course and thrusted my shoulder into to the first man's stomach. He spun and fell down, his gun flying far out of reach. I heard the loud crack that assured me his ribs were broken. The second man held up his knife as if challenging me. I didn't even think twice about tackling him.

I felt my shirt rip under the knife's blade but I ignored it. As I wrestled him to the ground I felt the bindings around my wrists snap. With newly free hands I sat on the man's chest and just plowed into his face as hard as I could. The blood from my fist and the blood from his face were pooling beneath us.

I was screaming and crying as all the thoughts of my mom, Devin, Ruff, and even Claire rushed into my head. I slammed my fist down one more time then stood over his body. Then I started to heave some of the surrounding heavy rocks onto his body making sure to use the larger rocks for his head. I don't even know if he was dead. Even if he wasn't he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

The I went to the first man who was trying to crawl away.

"You sick fuck!" I screamed and started hurling rocks at him.

"Please. Stop, just let me go." The man was gripping his chest as he pulled himself further from me.

"Did she ask you to stop? Did you just let her go?" I ran up to him. "Was she begging like you are right now you piece of shit?" I jumped onto his back and wrapped my hands up in his dirty hair.

"Crazy bitch!"

"She is a little girl!" I put all my weight into slamming his head into the ground. "She was a little girl!" He was making gurgling sounds but I kept forcing him down. "You are worse than them. You are all worse than them!" The man stopped flailing beneath me. I pick up the knife and fell off him.

"Oh my God." I stumbled back to look at what I had done. I picked up another rock in my free hand with the intention of hurling it as far as I could.

"Hey!"

I spun around to see Adam standing on top of the hill. He had a gun aimed at me. "Looks like I win." He shouted.

I was so mad. I threw the rock I still had in my hand at him. He stepped out of the way and threw his head back to laugh again like he always does only this time he stopped mid-laugh and looked down at his chest, where the blade of a knife was protruding. I glared at him from below. I guess he didn't notice I was also holding the knife. I had thrown it with deadly accuracy. Luck was defiantly with me.

I glared at Adam as he spit up some blood. He took a step forward then fell down to the base of the hill. I walked over and picked up the first discarded gun. Adam looked up at me still choking on his own blood. I don't think I would ever forget the look he had in his eyes. The look you get when you know that it truly is all over.

"I found a gun Adam." I mocked. "Remember you said I'd have to find a gun first?" I asked him through my teeth. I was a different person now. Everyone I knew or loved was dead. Adam tried to feebly crawl backwards.

"Oh, Adam." I sighed. "Do yourself a favor." He gave me a confused look. I narrowed my eyes down on him. "Don't struggle."

I shot one bullet into his chest and specks of his blood coated my face. Then I kept shooting until the gun only made a clicking sound.

I threw the gun down and screamed. My voice echoed back to me and I never felt so alone. I picked up Adam's gun then stumbled back to where Claire was laying face down in the grass. Her blood pooled all around her. Gently I pulled her upright and into my lap.

"Oh, God…oh, God." I pushed her hair out of her face. I always talked about killing Claire and Devin but this was just too much. Maybe it was karma. Where was Ruff? I needed him more than ever right now. I looked up at the sky and screamed again in agony until my throat was sore. "Claire…" I cried.

"They are coming."

Holy crap Claire was alive!

"Claire? Oh my God!" I ripped a piece of my shirt off and used it to apply pressure to her stab wounds. "I thought they killed you. Man you lost a lot of blood. Hold on okay? We are going to get you out of here."

"They are coming." Claire said again. This time she coughed a little I tried to ignore the blood coming from her mouth.

"No-no Claire I stopped them. They won't be coming for awhile." I brushed her hair back more. "We're safe for now. I'm not a doctor but maybe you shouldn't talk for awhile. Save your energy."

Claire didn't answer but just raised her arm. I looked across the field to see a group of figures making their way along. They were not far away at all how I had not seen the shitload of zombies heading this way I will never know.

"Okay, time to go!" I carefully picked Claire up and cradled her in my arms.

"Leave me here." Claire protested with more strength than she should have.

"No way am I leaving you. Now let's go." I tried my best to carry Claire over the hill and to the van that we had come in but I was struggling. I wanted to keep the pressure on her wounds, I was not strong enough to hold her and do that at the same time so I set her down and sort of half-dragged her up the hill.

I was half-way up when the first zombie reached the bottom. I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman all I know is that its eyes were staring hungrily up at us. "Get the fuck away from us!" I shouted down to it and I pulled Claire closer to my body.

The thing moaned and took a step up. I reached for Claire's arm and pulled her while I was walking backwards. "Shit, come on Claire. Come on." I cried as I tried to move her a foot to match the approaching zombie's movements. A few more of the faster zombies were at the bottom when me and Claire reached the crest. I wanted to make a joke about how someone the size of Claire, could be so heavy but this was not the time for humor.

The first zombie dropped to its knees and started to crawl towards us. I turned my head to look at the van. I swallowed when I realized Adam still had the keys. Dread crept up on me as I looked back down the hill to the hundreds of zombies who were still making their way towards us. Some stopped to eat parts of Adam and the others.

I took a deep breath and picked up Claire in my arms. "We are getting out of here." I told her and started to slide myself down the hill. "And we are going to find Ruff and Devin and our families and we are going to have a big party to celebrate." I explained to her as we reached the bottom. "And no one is going to bother us anymore. The zombies won't bother us anymore."

I ignored the zombies that were reaching the top of the hill behind me. "We are going to make a new world, where people work together. No one is going to kill anyone. And it is going to be perfect Claire, just perfect. Better then it was before." I yanked on the sliding door and by a miracle dumbass Adam left the doors unlocked. I set her down in the backseat as the first zombie crawled his way down the hill and stood only feet away from me.

"It is my time." She whispered as I carefully laid her down in the back seat. "I must return."

I reached for her hand. "Are you kidding? You are God…you are going to be with me forever, remember?" I felt something move behind me, it was the zombie grabbing the loose fabric of my shirt. I spun around and punched it in the face. It stumbled backwards to the foot of the hill where the rest of the zombies were rolling too.

I climbed in next to Claire and slammed the door shut. I looked down at my hand I had cuts all over it but there was no way to know if I was bit or not. Claire gave a small whimper and I brushed my tears away quickly. The zombies slammed hard into the van so much that it rocked, it was almost as if they were working together to tip us over.

"I just want a break." I whispered as they rocked the van again. "Is that too much to ask for? I just want a break!" I screamed and punched the passenger head rest over and over again. Then I heard a small jingling sound. It sounded like keys. I pulled out the back pocket sewn to the passenger seat inside there was a tiny flint of gold. Well it was gold to me.

"Holy shit, I can't fucking believe it." I pulled the spare keys out. "Okay, Okay, hold on Claire. We are getting out of here. We are getting the fuck out of here." I felt like laughing as I climbed up to the driver's seat.

The zombies began to spread out around the van but only a few were standing directly in front of us. "Go ahead you mother fuckers. Get in my way." I growled as I started the engine. There was another deadly rock but it would be the last. I put the van in drive then sped out the best you can in a mini-van. I was only sorry I could only take a few out as I left the horde behind.

* * *

Claire had finally fallen asleep. Either that or she passed out or even died; I just preferred to think she was sleeping. Yeah, that's all she was doing. I was going to have to pull over and check her stab wounds again but I didn't have any back-up and only one gun that I was not entirely sure how to use. I looked down at my hand. It didn't look infected, but then again I don't know what infected would look like or how long it will take for someone who has been bit to turn.

I just had to get Claire somewhere safe before I did. If I was going to.

"Damn it." I growled and slammed my palms down on the steering wheel. It hurt to do even that. Once my adrenaline left about an hour ago I was in constant pain. I didn't even know where I was going. I knew where I wanted to go, back to the Amazons of course. At least Rachel was sort of like a doctor. She would be able to help Claire and she would both be safe there.

Claire groaned from behind me and I felt an awful tug in my stomach. Was I trying to find Erica and the others for her? Or was I doing it because I thought that if Ruff was anywhere he would be with them. No, I just killed three men for her. And I didn't care, I honestly did not give a shit that I killed them. I was glad they were dead and I would even do it again if I was given the chance. In fact, I wish I could go back into that camp and kill Gloria and Gage too. I wish I could go destroy every one of the men that hurt her. I wish those fucking zombie creeps never showed up. I wish Devin had never died. I wished and wished and wished.

Claire let out another groan. I was going to have to pull over and just hope that no zombies were around and that Gage hadn't realized we were gone and sent more guys after us. "Hold on Claire. Just hold on." I whispered more to myself than to her as I pulled off to the side of the road. Without wasting time I climbed to the back of the van and lifted the torn remains of Claire's shirt.

Well it looked like the bleeding had stopped, but there was nothing I could do for any possible infection that might occur. More like probable infection that would occur. I sighed and pushed the hair out of my eyes. I did the best I could cleaning the dried blood off her porcelain skin. Claire's eyes fluttered open to look at me.

"Wh-What is going on?" It's the first time I have ever seen her look confused.

"You got hurt don't you remember?" I reached for her hand. It was a good thing we were both pretty small or else it would have been a lot more cramped in the back seat and that would have defiantly dampened the mood.

"I know that but why aren't they here yet?" Claire was barely audible as she cast her eyes towards the windows. I glanced out the windows into the dark. As if I wasn't paranoid enough. Maybe I should have turned off the headlights…

"Claire you have got to stop talking like that. Who isn't here yet?" I felt her head. She had a fever; great she would be even more delusional.

Claire smiled and took a deep breath, which she had to take great effort in doing, "its okay, here they are. They're here now." She reached up to touch my face.

"Who is, Claire?" I felt like shaking her because, as much as I hated to admit it, every time Claire said something creepy like that it normally came to pass. I suddenly had the huge urge to start driving away.

I rushed back to the driver's seat and frantically tried to start the van. That's when the window shattered around my head. I covered my head as glass shattered around me. Someone began pulling me out of the van through the broken glass and onto the road. I figured it wasn't a zombie because it hadn't bitten into me yet. Whatever it was I just didn't care anymore. Let whoever it was kill me. Running for your life was overrated anyway.

"Jennifer?" The pressure that was forcing my down relinquished and allowed me to gasp for air again.

I heard my name and looked up. A bright light was shone directly into my eyes blinding me from everything else. "Jen! Get off her it's them we found her!" The tight grip on me loosened almost immediately. It was Ruff.

I felt someone else kneel down beside me and hold my head up. "Oh God, Ruff. I didn't know where you were and Devin…and then they took us and Claire got hurt-" I didn't think I had any tears left but they came rolling down my face anyway.

"Shh." Ruff consoled me. "It's okay." He turned around to talk to someone else. "Rachel I think she it hurt."

Hurt? I wasn't hurt. Claire was. "I'm fine; Claire is still in the van. She got stabbed and she got-well she needs help." I winced. I still couldn't bring myself to say.

"Holy crap, that's a lot of blood." Rachel knelt beside Ruff and me on the road.

"It's mostly Claire's blood. Go help her, I'm fine."

"Jennifer, it looks like you've been shot." Ruff gestured down to my torso.

"Oh." I whispered mostly because I had no idea what else to say. I looked down at my abdomen. All this time I thought they missed when they shot at me…guess I was wrong. I fell back into Ruff's arms.

"Rachel take her back. I'll get the little one and follow." Ruff was saying as I drifted out of consciousness. The last thing I saw before succumbing was Devin, standing pale as a ghost behind Rachel directly in the light beam. He looked overwhelmingly relieved.


	19. Chapter 19

**I did not plan on ending this so abruptly but I have other priorities I have to get done/through before I can keep writing. Original this was a 2 part story, the first part being about evil gangs and the second focusing more on the zombies. I wanted to weave this together but looking back it didn't turn out that way. I'm going to cut this story off but it's left open so I can come back to it once I come back. This is the last chapter and then there is a short epilouge. Once again sorry about the poor ending but sometimes things come up you know? Anyway enjoy what's here.**

Lately I have been waking up in weird, random places. Mostly it has ended badly for me but this time. I opened my eyes to see an actual ceiling. Not the open sky or the top of a flimsy tent. I tried taking a deep breath but I had bandages that were constricting me. I groaned to myself and looked around. I was on a lumpy cot and I am pretty sure I could feel a pole jabbing into my back. It was the most comfortable position I had been in for the last week.

"Oh, wow you're up!" I was startled and almost fell over at Rebecca's outburst. She was sitting delicately on a stool behind me with a note book on her lap. "Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you." She whispered.

I nodded and set my head back on the lumpy pillow. "It's okay."

"Good thing you're up too. We're leaving in a couple days." She took her cracked glasses off as she spoke.

"Why?" I asked raising my head again. "Aren't we safe here?"

"Well…we were. But supposedly there is this group of zombies heading this direction, and we can't risk diverting them. Erica said there was hundreds of them." Rebbeca set the note book down and put her hand on my forehead. "She went ahead and scouted out an escape route back in the beginning just in case anything ever got to us." I guess she thought of everything.

"It's my fault. I saw them…I let them see me."

"No, I think we all knew that we couldn't stay here forever." Rebecca sighed. "You still have a bit of a fever. Ruff thought you were a goner; Erica had to stop him from going back to wherever those men were at. The man was livid."

"A fever?" I looked down at my hand that was bandaged as well. "Rebbeca I hit one of them. I might have been bit! You have to get away from me!"

"Relax. You have been asleep for the past few days. If you were going to change you would have changed by now. You are as human as you ever were." Rebecca smiled. "Although you did have some people worried."

I wasn't prepared for the wave of relief that crashed over me. I wasn't dead and I wasn't a zombie. "What happened? I mean how did you find me?"

"Well Ruff and the boy came back a few days ago and they told us you and the little girl got kidnapped outside some gas station…"

My mind started running like crazy. "Rebecca, what do you mean the boy came back?" Surely she wasn't talking about Devin. I saw him dead.

Rebecca gave me a funny look. "The boy you guys were with…Dan or Derrick…"

"Devin?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah that's the guy. You must have hit your head. So anyway they came back-"

"Devin is alive?" I spoke over her. No way was alive I saw him get shot I saw him lying in the dirt.

"Of course he is, are you going to let me finish?"

I couldn't breathe. How could Devin possibly be alive, and if he really was like Rachel said, why wasn't he with me?

"Rebecca." I looked at the doorway, the woman who drove me and Claire here the first visit was standing there. She looked miserable and who could blame her? "Come here for a second. I need to tell you something." She was speaking quietly and avoided making eye contact with me. It made me nervous.

Rebecca cautiously got up and left the room. I patiently waited for her return. I could hear whispers outside the door and I had the growing feeling you get when you think someone is talking about you. A few minutes later, Ruff made his triumph return.

"Ruff…" I smiled happy to see him again. "I knew you would save me."

Ruff gave me half a grin. "You were doing pretty fine on your own."

I rolled my eyes dramatically. "Except for the whole getting shot thing, and Claire. Oh God Claire! How is she? Can I see her?" I went to get off the cot but Ruff held me down. His face went still and he looked at the ground. I did not like where this was going. "Ruff?"

"Jen, I don't know how to quite tell you this, but Claire, she's passed on. Just a few minutes ago."

"No she didn't."

"Jennifer."

"She's alive. You just have to go check her again."

"There was nothing we could do. She lost too much blood we think she had some internal bleeding. We did our best Jen."

"Don't tell me that." I shook my head as the tears began to return to my eyes. He rested his hand on my shoulder and I immediatly shrugged it off. "Don't say that." My voice broke into a sob. "She's not dead. She's just not. Go check her again!" I raised my hand and pointed at the door. "Go check her!"

"Jen everything is alright."

"No it is not! Go check on her! Go Ruff, she isn't dead! I saw her she wasn't dead!"

Ruff moved to sit on the edge on the cot and hug me. "It's okay; she's in a better place." I couldn't help but start to pound on his chest. He allowed me to fight him.

No she is not in a better place, I felt like screaming. She should still be here; she was just a little girl. None of this should have happened to her. "I told her I'd help her, I told her she'd be fine." I sobbed on.

"Shh now Jen. This isn't your fault. You did what you had to do to keep Claire and yourself alive for as long as possible. And then you found us." Ruff was rubbing slow circles around my back. I went calm in his arms but I didn't feel any better.

"You are the one that found us. I was lost…" I sniffed.

Ruff chuckled sadly. "I didn't know it was you. To be honest I thought it was one of those bastards. And I apologize for pulling you out of the van like that…I was a little upset." I pulled away from him and he pushed the hair out of my face. "I'm just glad you are okay."

"What happened to you Ruff? After they took us I mean." My eyes stung from the tears. I was surprised I even had tears left.

He rubbed the back of his head and looked at me. "When me and Devin went into the store we saw them pull up. We didn't see you, so we thought you had escaped. They were going after Claire so we made up a plan. Only when you came back out, Devin jumped the gun."

"What do you mean?"

"Well the plan was to sneak out, but Devin saw you and ran out. Of course he ends up getting shot."

"I saw him, I thought he was dead."

"I guess I forgot that part." Ruff smiled. "We took the metal shelves they left in the store and put them under our shirts. I was going to claim that I captured you three and when the others turned their backs, we would take them out. By the way…don't mention anything about this to Devin. He felt horrible after they had taken you. I wanted to put him on suicide watch."

"Don't worry…I would never do that." At least I hoped I wouldn't. Maybe if Devin had stuck to Ruff's plan Claire would still be alive...

"Did I hear my name?"

Ruff and I looked at the doorway. A very emancipated looking Devin was standing there looking like he didn't know if he should be smiling or not.

"Devin, I missed you." I smiled at him with tears still in my eyes. He walked across the room in large strides with half a smile until he was standing next to me.

He and Ruff exchanged awkward glances and Ruff took this as a cue to leave.

"Jen, I am so sorry. I should have never taken you there in the first place. They never would have been after you and this never would have happened." He looked on the verge of tears. "I saw what they did to Claire, and I-she is so little Jen, why her?"

I blinked back the always present tears. "It's not your fault. It's not your fault." I repeated but deep down inside I wanted to blame someone and Devin made for an easy target. "If it wasn't for you Claire would have died in the first few days. And I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you."

Devin held my hand in his. "Ruff said the same thing. But I will never forgive myself. I just can't. I could have stopped it if I didn't act like such a damn idiot."

"Rebecca says we are leaving." I wanted to change the subject because I was afraid that I would turn on Devin just like he had turned on himself.

"As soon as you are ready to go, they said. We can't take the cars, there isn't any more gas and our ammo is really low." Devin looked down on my face.

"Tomorrow."

"That's a little soon don't you think?" Devin glanced down at all the bandages.

"Maybe. You will help me though won't you?" I asked him doing my best to squeeze his hand.

"Of course, I'll help you with anything Jen." Devin looked back into my eyes.

"Good." I closed my eyes and let the draft from the door blow across my face. Devin chuckled and brushed my cheek. "Jen, I think I love you."

I peeked out at him. "You think you love me?"

Devin smiled and looked away. He licked his lips quickly "Uh, yeah…I think I do."

"Well. I think I love you to Devin."

He turned back and smiled at me.


	20. Epilouge

The next morning we had a funeral for Claire. I didn't see her body; I didn't think I could handle seeing her in a box. The pain in my heart would not go away. Even as the rest of the group left to begin packing the little that they had to leave I stood next to the hole that Claire had been set into. I sat on the edge so that my legs were dangling over her. I don't know if zombies would dig up dead bodies to eat but they were not going to get her. No one was.

Devin pulled me up when it was time for them to pour the dirt over the edge and onto that crudely cut box. I felt like jumping into the hole with her and never coming out. Devin somehow sensed this and carefully wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I couldn't help but notice how perfectly our bodies fit together. I scratched a large rock with Devin's knife for a headstone so that it said:

_Here Lies God's Brightest Angel_

I wanted to write more. So much more. But there is only so much rock. Instead, I wrote most of my thoughts on one of the only sheets of paper available about zombies, the gang, and Claire. Then I laid it underneath that rock. That way if anyone were to find this place they would know what she meant to me and they would know what she had done for me.

"Thanks Claire." I whispered as I traced the lines of the rock.

When it was time to finally leave Devin and Ruff came to lead me away. Every step caused physical pain but that was easy to hide, it was the emotional pain that made me break down. We were going away as three when it should have been four. The other women took turns helping me along, but Devin stayed by my side the whole way.

That night I counted an extra star in the sky. We trekked along roadways and paths for days.

It made me nervous to be in a group this large with so few guns. Ruff and Erica began spending more and more time together, leaving me and Devin alone for the most part. We kept on until we reached a heavily forested area and decided to settle among the trees.

It was somewhere where the zombies rarely thought to come and the gangs pretty much ignored. When we got there we found small camps already set up. People had survived. I talked to someone who said he was traveling from the mountains; he even said he knew of people living in the deserts of Arizona and Nevada. I had thought the whole world was dead, what little faith I had in mankind. They were all holding out for the zombies to die of hunger. If that was even possible.

Among the groups of people there was one family that I found particularly drawn too. Three orphaned siblings, none over the age of 13 and while they had very little respect for Devin I had them wrapped around my finger. One night I was sitting outside the tree line on watch with them and told them a story about the stars. We picked out two that would represent their mother and father and I showed them my mom and Claire.

Ruff told me I would make a great mom someday. I think Devin choked on the piece of deer meat he was eating. I just smiled though, besides, Erica was the one glowing lately.


End file.
